Extrapolation
by Queen Hotaru
Summary: What would the 24 world be like if Jack was Chloe and Chloe was Jack? Field agent Chloe O'Brian and the agents of CTU find themselves in the midst of another national crisis... And 24 will never be the same. AU, JC. Comments are love!
1. Chapter 1

Extrapolation  
Chapter 1

It hadn't gotten them anything new. The prisoner had refused to talk, this defiant dedication, rooted in faith? Conviction? The happy thought he used to fly like Peter Pan? The prisoner's continued lack of cooperation had only spurred the questions on harder, more 'incentive' to answer given each time. He hadn't spoken of information and plans but of begging and cursing at the interrogator. It wouldn't be long before he finally cracked. That much was evident. After all, the human body could only take so much 'incentive,' and if the man thought he had taken all that his captor could dish out, he was sorely mistaken...as he would soon realize...

One final look was sent towards the prisoner, a very dark and dangerous look which promised that what this man just endured was nothing compared to what lay ahead should he not cooperate. He still said nothing of consequence. The prisoner had multiple bruises, a split lip, and likely a broken rib or two. The captive was in immense pain and it wouldn't be long before he broke. The agent could hear the subject's breathing, and the look in his eyes had been hidden under a mask of concentration, but even this couldn't hide the underlying glint of terror.

With other leads to be followed and this getting them nowhere, the interrogator exited the room, addressing the person who stood in the hallway waiting.

"He's close to cracking."

"I'll get Marcus in there to finish up, but they've got a lead for you on the floor."

"Then he's all yours, Bill."

Exiting the hallway, Chloe O'Brien emerged on the floor of Los Angeles CTU. The ever-present buzz of technology and people at work was punctuated by the tri-tone ringing of telephones. Only a few acknowledged her presence as she made her way to Tech 1, taking her cell phone out as she went and calling a number.

"Bauer."

"Jack, it's me. I heard you got something."

"Word travels fast." There was a flurry of typing in the background and craning her neck she saw that he was balancing the phone between his ear and his shoulder.

"It's a relatively small office." She'd been in transit as the conversation had been running. There was a click on the line as she closed the phone and continued without missing a beat. "It's amazing that anything remains secret, especially here, given what we do for a living."

He turned to the side for a moment, his head still tilted holding the phone, only then realizing that she was standing behind him. With a small roll of his eyes, he grabbed the handset and put it back in the cradle. She knew that look and Chloe kept an amused smirk suppressed as she took a look over his shoulder at the monitor.

"We intercepted a call from Harris."

"The contact?"

"Yeah, unfortunately tracing the number showed it came from and went to disposable cells. Triangulated the signals and got an address. Teams went out, there's nothing there. Empty lot and a factory building. Didn't find any traces, but a couple of blank papers. Lab analyzed them; again, nothing. But someone called in a suspicious person-"

"Matching Harris' description?" Chloe didn't even wait for his response. "Where?"

"Out near Anaheim." He turned from the monitor, looking at her for a moment. "It's worth noting that our last reports have them near Compton. We sent teams out and we're waiting on word. Anything from the interrogation?"

He stood, after pressing a few buttons on the keyboard. Grabbing the phone he called over to Tech 2. "Yeah, sent something to your screen... Uh huh, the encryption...Thanks."

Hanging up he grabbed his cellular phone from the desktop and walked with O'Brian.

"Nothing...yet." She let a little air escape her lips before continuing. "Marcus is in with him. So it's only a matter of time."

Chloe closed her eyes for a moment. Her head was killing her, but she had been ignoring it, having already taken something... it didn't help matters that she'd had a pretty rough time bringing the suspect in. She hadn't had time to slow down yet, much less look in a mirror, but she knew that she had a bruise somewhere on her face from when she had been caught off guard by the man now being broken in the interrogation room. It could have been much worse, and Chloe O'Brian would not complain about something so superficial.

How long had they been on the clock? A day? Two days? Three? At this point Jack couldn't be certain, but he knew that he was, at the very least, on his third cup of coffee. It was days like this (or several days like this) that, despite it all, focused him the most. The smallest detail in the data could mean life or death... This focus was now brought in on the clear signs of fatigue being shown by Chloe. As her hand came up and unconsciously brushed some hair behind her ear, showing him the bruise, a frown passed over his features.

"Chloe, you should go get checked by medical."

It wasn't an illogical suggestion but under the circumstances there wasn't the time...

"I'm fine, Jack." A slight shake of her head accompanied her comment. "And besides that, what could they do for it? It's a bruise. It'll heal," she shrugged, letting the concern roll off like it was nothing. This was Chloe O'Brian's way. Wait till it was all over then pull for recovery time. In other words, she ignored it until it was more convenient.

He knew that it wouldn't do any good to pursue this line of conversation, thus he tried switching topics, but she beat him to it.

"Shouldn't be too long..." She was shifting her weight every couple of seconds and it reminded Jack of a two year old who was instructed to stand and not do anything for a time... It was the latest in what had been a series of fidgets. Jack was still looking for a pattern in their appearance, trying to tell what was going on when each occurred, but thus far he had been unable to track it yet.

Jack tried to engage in some semblance of small talk but his conversation partner seemed to have other things on her mind. Her eyes kept glancing in the direction of the room.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked finally.

"'Okay' is a relative term, Jack," she said with a slightly skeptical look.

"Well then are yo-"

Attention was temporarily distracted as several members of the medical staff ran passed them and towards the interrogation room. It was only a moment later that Chloe's cell phone rang.

"We got it!" And with that, Chloe tore down the hallway, Jack following her, knowing that right sudden dash could only mean one thing.

The prisoner was bloodied and unconscious and the medical personnel were trying to get him onto a gurney when they arrived. Chloe didn't waste a minute.

"So what do we have?"

"An address and a possible safe house location," Marcus reported, wiping his brow with a cloth.

"Sounds like we've finally got a lead," Chloe's eyes narrowed. She was ready to get to work. "Okay, pass the information to ops. Jack, relay it to me enroute."

"No. It's too big, Chloe. I want you to take Marcus with you."

Chloe's eyes focused on her boss as she heard just what he was saying. She hadn't gone four steps before the words hit her ears. She knew the implications and she didn't like them. "How many times do we have to go over this, Bill? I don't work with partners. Not anymore."

Bill Buchanan looked at the petite woman standing in front of him with a sigh. "And we've had this argument before as well, Chloe. Now I respect your judgment and your opinions, and normally I wouldn't question your clear opposition, but this time I can't take no for an answer."

Chloe's eyes narrowed as Bill continued. She was doing her best to keep from getting too angry, but this was one of the points she had promised herself...

"Bill I really don't have time for this. Do you forget my track record with partners?" she said was calm...too calm. "Do you really want to lose another field agent? Not one, but two have died after being partnered up with me. And don't tell me that it's part of the job, Bill. You haven't seen that look in their eyes the moment before they find themselves bleeding out..." she let the sentence trail off. "Like I said. I. Work. Alone."

"And I say that I'm sending Marcus with you whether you want him there or not!" Bill Buchanan was not backing down.

Chloe's glare intensified. She wasn't going to win this one and as much as she didn't want to admit it to herself, deep down she knew it.

"I'm not taking responsibility this time, Bill," Chloe said, she'd taken a moment to calm down before speaking again. "But mark my words. If something happens to Marcus, I'm done! It'll be on your head! Not mine." With that she turned on her heel and walked back onto the floor. "Stiles." Edgar was on the phone and at first didn't hear her until she got closer. "Edgar!" He jerked his head towards Chloe. "C'mon, you're with me. I need you to walk me through a scenario." And with that she walked off towards an empty office.

As Chloe walked off with Edgar Stiles, Bill Buchanan sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose, his glasses secured in his pocket. Through this back and forth Jack's presence had been practically forgotten. Watching this argument and the aftermath, he knew that there wasn't anything he could say.

"Jack," his attention was pulled from the retreating woman to his boss. "Jack, I want you to keep an eye on her... I need you running comms for this operation. I have a feeling that she might do something..."

"Something unorthodox?" Jack supplied.

"That's a good way of putting it, Jack, but we both know that that doesn't even scratch the surface of what could happen." With a last look that could interpret as concern or even worry, Bill walked off towards his office.

Jack Bauer stood in the corridor for several moments, thoughts of this latest altercation in flowing through his mind. This hadn't been the first time an argument over this subject had happened. Chloe O'Brian was very particular about how and who she worked with. One might say that the job was what got to a person. That one person would be absolutely right, and where O'Brian was concerned, there was a very good reason.

Jack had been part of been part of the Los Angeles Counter Terrorism Unit for years before he was introduced to Chloe O'Brian. In the seven years since O'Brian had joined CTU as a field agent she'd seen things that would keep any good therapist busy for years. Somehow she had been able to keep it together... Then came December Fifteenth and September Seventh. That first day, the shoot out with Gabriel Varrek, from that Jack had been sure she'd been able to recover from, and he'd been right. Chloe had done just that, slowly, and with help from psych services (forced as she was to use them)... with the help of professionals and her friends she'd been able to move on.

With the Illians Incident two years later, Jack had done everything he could to help her. It had taken a lot for her to rely on another after the Varrek shooting and the loss of her first partner, Daryll Haskel. She had stopped dwelling on the what-ifs and the if-onlys and the weight on her heart and shoulders finally seemed easier to bear. She'd finally made peace with it all, and then it struck again. Mason's death had hit her with the impact of two. The memories, the guilt and pain resurged and in Jack's presence she'd sworn that she would never work with another partner.

Chloe had taken some time off after the Illians Incident. In truth, the time, like the intervention of CTU's psych services after Daryll's death, had been forced upon her. She would much rather have stayed in the field, but Bill Buchanan, who had been very understanding during these trying times, had put his foot down and as he was prone to do, did not budge from his executive decision. She'd taken her forced sabbatical in her apartment in LA, where she entertained visits from Jack and from the psychiatrist who came once a week, and with her parents out in Arizona. At first she hadn't wanted to see her parental units, but Jack had convinced her, telling her that there was nothing better than a family for support... the irony of his own word had not and did not escape him.

The fact that Chloe's parents didn't know exactly what their daughter did for a living had helped matters. Not that it was a secret, but Chloe O'Brian did her best to separate work and family. It was difficult, she often complained that when her parents called asking about how life was going, she couldn't really be honest with them... How could someone tell their parents that their days consisted of shooting people dead in self defense... That she spent her work hours interrogating suspects using methods that could be considered breaches of the Geneva Convention?

The first visits with her family had been supervised. That had been how the psychiatrist, Doctor Amy Millner, had put it. The doctor had been worried about how she would react to her family, it was a legitimate concern. Chloe herself was worried about that very same issue. But "supervised" was never the word that was used by anyone other than "the doc." This concern, however, was the reason for Jack's accompaniment on these early trips. It was a change of scenery, the hot mountainous region known as the Mojave Desert was quite a stark contrast to the city of Los Angeles.

All her parents had been told were the basics: That her partner had died and that she was in need of some time at home, someplace she was comfortable. Jack had to smile to himself as he remembered the day he'd said he'd go shopping with Chloe and her father. When he tried to find out the next afternoon around mid-day when they were going, he'd been told the two had already gone... It was a habit that they had picked up when they'd lived in Henderson, Nevada: the afternoon would be too hot to go out, thus they woke at five in the morning to go out and run errands. The look on his face must have been amusing because that had been the first time Jack had heard her laugh in weeks... It was in moments like those that he was reminded just how unique and extraordinary Chloe O'Brian was. How strong she was.

He was pulled from his thoughts by the passing proximity of a returning Edgar Stiles. The large man seemed lost in thought. 'Probably going over that scenario in his head,' Jack thought to himself. He pushed off the wall, where he'd been standing with his arms crossed, and started towards the office Chloe had taken over, only to meet her half way.

He wanted to say something, make sure she was alright, his eyes held the question, but Chloe was not responding to the silent inquiry.

"Jack, we're leaving in fifteen," her voice was very controlled. "Let's to do this right and get everyone back alive."

She again looked up at him, noting his nod and the look he had on his face and ever so slightly her lips tried to form some sort of a smile, if it was meant to reassure him it had fallen short of its goal. He was about to speak, but-

"Chloe, they want you for final checks."

The message's delivery meant that they needed her...now. No time for delays.

"See you on the comm, Jack." That said she turned away from him without a second look, pulled out her cell phone and pressed a few buttons as she walked. "Yeah, it's me. I'm on my way... Yeah, I saw the file..."

His thoughts followed the petite field agent even as she disappeared through a door at the end of the corridor. He turned back towards the floor and Field Ops, looking over his shoulder at where she'd gone, not even noticing as a folder was pressed ino his hand.


	2. Chapter 2

Extrapolation  
Chapter 2

"The following takes place between four pm and-"

"Turn that thing off Marcus. We're waiting here, not listening to one of your TV audio tracks."

Marcus Collier shot a look at the woman in the driver's seat before clicking the eject button on the CD player.

"Y'know, you don't have to snap at me like that. We all know that you're anxious to catch this guy, O'Brian, but until the backup we called for gets here we have to watch and wait."

"I know that. But I don't need to hear yet another television audio track to that show. It's not the same if you can't see the pictures. It's the difference between television medium and radio programs like Jack Benny, Burns and Allen or Fred Allen," Chloe said with a frown towards her new 'partner'.

The man shook his head and looked out the window of the SUV keeping an eye out, but it wasn't too long before he started humming to himself. This too was cut short by a glare from Chloe.

"Fine, I guess we'll just sit here in silence then," Marcus rolled his eyes as he spoke, it was meant as sarcasm, but it apparently didn't work as it received only a "Sounds good," in response... not that the silence lasted long before the recent transfer from CTU Boston started humming to himself again. He ignored the looks and the hints...the blatant hints she was giving him to stop. If he didn't stop humming 'Magic to Do' from _Pippin_ soon...

Backup was on its way. That had been confirmed by Jack only moments before. Thus far there had been no movement in the house on Glensdale Avenue. This wasn't unusual, but it made Chloe very nervous. Her instincts were good, but she had been wrong before and without any new intel coming in through the earpiece she was wearing (connected via Bluetooth to her cell phone) she was feeling very ill at ease, to put it lightly.

Finally she could take the humming no more. She was about to snap at her newly assigned partner when her phone ringing cut her off.

"O'Brian. What?"

"...Wasn't expecting _that_ response. Everything alright?" One could picture the eyebrow being raised in confusion at the other end of the line.

"Just planning a bit of murder here."

Marcus heard this and rolled his eyes, but stopped the humming.

"Chloe, take a breath and calm down, this isn't helping the situation. Your backup teams are a little more than a mile out and should be there soon. We've got ops in place and satellite coverage is up and ready. We're go for the operation as soon as you give the word."

"Thanks Jack, I'll call when we're ready."

With that the conversation ended. On his side of the phone line, Jack sat, his forehead slightly furrowed as he tried to figure out if she was just trying to, once again, push another partner away, or if this had her on edge...it was difficult to tell at times.

The discussion in the vehicle carrying the two field agents had become a debate over the question of time and whether or not it was currently being wasted. Their early canvas of the property had not added any new intel to what they already knew.

There were no visible indications that anyone had been here, outside anyway, in some time. The lawn was terribly overgrown; the child's swing set was rusted and turned on its side...

Marcus had started question the need for their presence here.

"We need to check every lead, Collier." This was said very calmly as Chloe attempted not to blow up at him. "I don't know how things are handled in Boston, but this isn't a game or a negotiation. It's not always a glamorous job, but dammit, if we miss something live can be at stake!" her voice modulated, and while she wasn't yelling, it was clear that she was pissed.

There had been no humming after that.

Chloe stepped out of the vehicle and slammed the door. The action was an attempt to vent her frustration...it hadn't been terribly effective. She leaned against the closed door rubbing the knot at the base of her neck. Right now all Chloe wanted was a cigarette.

Chloe didn't smoke, exempting some possible experimentation during her little-discussed high school career, she never had. For Chloe the word 'cigarette' could be easily substituted for 'teething ring' in the case of a tot just cutting his teeth. A 'cigarette' was an item or activity that would calm her... calm her nerves.

She stood there, attempting to ease the pain in her shoulders, neck and head. She knew that the attempt was futile. She was actively thinking about it now, the pain; this made it slightly more pronounced, especially the throbbing in her head. She only had one option, she had already taken something for her head and it was too soon to take more. Now her only real option was to force herself to relax, and that was something she had never been good at. As she'd predicted the attempt had been unsuccessful (her doubt likely contributing to this), but her attention was deterred from the pain very suddenly.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw, or thought she saw, a small glint of light. She couldn't be absolutely certain, it had lasted only a second and she couldn't pinpoint where it had come from... not exactly. She'd seen it from the direction of the house, but as it was now gone, she couldn't be sure. She started going through the possibilities but didn't have the chance to finish her analysis as the vehicle carrying the backup team arrived.

She knocked on the window just in case Marcus hadn't seen that they had company. He probably had, but she wasn't taking chances.

The leader of the team, Ross Kessler stepped out, followed by his team and approached Chloe, who had held her phone in her hand.

"Chloe."

"Ross." She nodded at him in acknowledgment. The greeting was short, curt, not from animosity between the two; simply in their line of work time was always something they weren't always awarded the luxury of. Marcus approached the two. "Ross, Marcus Collier, Marcus, Ross Kessler," she introduced the two men just as quickly as the previous greeting had been then deliberately spoke to Ross. "Everyone here?" A nod. "Alright. Get them in place, secure the perimeter, then inside. Let's get this done. I'll be with you in a second, start getting everyone in place. Marcus," she turned to him, "you'll be with me and Ross securing inside. We're taking lead." Chloe O'Brian was not one for sending others to do a job she wasn't willing to do herself. She always preferred to take the lead than send one of the 'troops' (as she referred to them) in her place.

She took a moment, pressed a button on the cell phone she'd been holding in her hand, and then put it back into her pocket, the earpiece still in place.

"Bauer."

"They're here. We're going in."

"I've got all of you on my monitor."

"Right." She disconnected the call, leaving the earpiece in. "We're a go," was all she said.

Chloe and Marcus did one more canvas of the area around the house as the troops moved in to secure the area around the house. They still found nothing, but as they were heading back to the front of the building Chloe thought she saw that glint again from somewhere above her...

"We're ready to go in," Kessler reported. "Perimeter's secure."

She nodded and before moving with the two agents towards the porch, Chloe looked up at the sky, nodding again.

From his desk at CTU, Jack was watching the scene from satellite hookup. He saw the look on her face. This was it. "Alright that's the signal. Edgar, they're going in." he called to his fellow analyst. Edgar was helping with the coverage. "Comms are online, we've got you on screen Chloe," he reported. She'd called and opened the phone connection again.

With the line reopened, Chloe refocused in on the scene in front of her. The three field agents were making their way to the steps, but for the life of her... Chloe could swear that there was something wrong with this. She couldn't get it out of her head. Something was wrong.

And then the suddenly the 'glint' came back...

In an instant there were bodies littering the ground. Chloe, Marcus and Ross hit the ground, Chloe pushing Marcus down when he tried to locate the source.

Jack saw what was going happening on his monitor. It happened so suddenly...

"Chloe!" no response. "Chloe respond!"

He could see that she, Marcus and an agent he knew as Kessler were on the ground...they weren't moving.

"Chloe?! Dammit!" He hit the desk, typing frantically; he knew that it wouldn't do any good. He couldn't pinpoint where it had come from. He turned for a moment to yell something to Edgar, but before he could get the words out he saw some movement on the screen out of the corner of his eye. There were four bodies lying on the ground, as was Chloe's earpiece. The three agents were gone...


	3. Chapter 3

Extrapolation  
Chapter 3

When it came down to it Edgar Stiles was best summed up as a likable, easy-going guy who was very good at his job. His specialty was intel streams and the analysis thereof. And when he had a job to do...well, he did it. Today was no different than any other day. Or so he thought. But all that was shattered in one fell swoop.

Jack Bauer shouting and hitting his desk, well... Edgar had worked with the man for several years now. Working with him you learned quickly that this was not a good sign... even before asking, Edgar knew that this day wouldn't be 'normal' for much longer...

He didn't want to ask. But he had to.

"What's going on Jack?"

The frantic speed of his colleague's typing would have been enough to draw concern...but the answer...

"I lost her."

Edgar turned from his screen, his eyes slightly wider.

"You what?!" he got up and rushed over to Field Ops 1. "Where was she last? What happened?"

Jack's eyes never moved from the screen except to glance at his phone for a moment. "They called, said they were going in and were going for the porch and then they started dropping. Sniper," he said rushed. He was doing an area sweep but didn't  
see anything. There was blood on the ground where the three agents had been laying and Edgar could see the look in his face. He couldn't tell if it was fear, determination, anger, worry, concentration or... all of them? He was concentrating at any rate... that much he knew...

Edgar Stiles was no one's fool... And he knew that right now if he tried to talk Jack down from this, he was liable to wind either back at his desk or half way across the room...

"How could this have happ-" Edgar started.

"I Don't KNOW!" Jack exclaimed loudly. It had attracted attention from people in the area surrounding Field Ops. Jack took a breath still typing, then exhaling, his voice quieter. "I don't know..."

Knowing Jack Bauer's behavior patterns to the extent that he did, Edgar took the only logical course of action. He picked up the phone back at Tech 2 and pressed a button.

"Mr. Buchanan, we've got a small situation down here..." he said quietly.

"How small, Edgar?"

"Chloe's off the satellite, Jack's...well I don't know what happened other than he thinks it may have been a sniper. I don't know what he saw... Mr. Buchanan, he's-"

Jack Bauer didn't deal well with this sort of situation. He was an information analyst. He liked knowing. He would be the first person to admit...to himself anyway... that he was something of a control freak. But it came with the job. He was in control of his own universe. His world. It was part of what made him so good at his job, his eye for detail. But now...right now he didn't feel in control of anything.

To say that he was frantic...he knew that it didn't begin to describe it. He was suddenly panicking and couldn't get himself to slow down. He'd seen the whole thing happen, and yet he'd lost her. He'd _lost her_.

It would be pointless to say that he was mentally kicking himself...and quite an understatement.

There was blood where Chloe, Marcus and Kessler had been lying. The implication brought upon by that and the discarded earpiece...

He was so focused he didn't even notice when a hand was placed on his shoulder. He hadn't even realized that someone was calling him. Not at first anyway.

"Jack!"

His head snapped away from the monitor. Being caught unaware there was a doe-in-the-headlights look in his eyes which lasted less than a second.

Bill Buchanan was standing beside him looking concerned. "Jack, I need you to step back from the computer, alright?"

Jack's eyes narrowed a bit as he turned back to the screen and continued his typing.

Buchanan was not getting the action he'd hoped for. He looked for a moment over at Edgar, who shrugged, and went back to his own work with a small unsure look. 

"Jack, this isn't request," Bill said leaning down so he could see the computer screen over Jack's shoulder. He stood back to his full height. This wasn't working. "Jack, I need to know what's happening, now." It was no longer a request. It was an order. His tone had changed from its normal cadence to something much sharper.

"There were shots fired. I don't know from where. They hit the ground, weren't moving," Jack said, continuing his frantic typing. "I turned away for a second... A _second_. And they were gone. I can't find them. Chloe's not responding, her earpiece is there," he pointed to the screen where it was lying.

Bill took in the information, his eyes on the screen as Jack tried without success to find the three agents. Now that he had a better grasp on the situation he better understood the reasons for Jack's current state...

"Jack, listen to me. I need you to take a breath and slow down. I know you want to find them, but this frantic pace isn't this isn't going to help anyone, them or you. Just take a breath and try to calm down. We'll find them." He put his hand on Jack's shoulder again trying to comfort and reassure him. This wasn't the first time that one of the agents had disappeared suddenly while in the field. When this happened, there was always guilt, worry, confusion and all-around chaos as CTU tried to figure out what was going on and where everyone was... but when it was Jack Bauer, and Chloe O'Brian was involved...

The words didn't appear to have an effect on Jack, at least not right away. There was a silence that loomed over Field Ops, broken only by the frantic pace of Jack's typing. Bill was about to speak again when he heard the typing begin to slow.

Looking down at Jack and seeing him nod ever so slightly, Bill pulled out his cell phone and ordered another team deployed to 325 Glensdale Avenue. An ambulance had already been sent. Finishing the call, he turned back to Jack. "Hey, you going to be alright?"

It wasn't the right question to ask, Bill knew this, but at times like this there was no 'right question.'

Jack could only look at his boss and nod. "Yeah Bill. I'll be fine." Both knew that the statement wasn't truthful, but what was supposed to be said? Jack, Bill and even Edgar knew that he wouldn't be 'fine' until the three agents were found...no one needed to say specifically who Jack was concerned about. Everyone knew.

This was supposed to be routine. How did these things always end in death? Her heart was pounding in her ears, the pain in her head a long-faded memory.

Four were dead. Four families who would have to be notified of the losses and... She didn't have time to think about that right now.

The three field agents had made it to the back of the house. The back porch had a large overhang which they'd taken a moment to stop under before kicking the back door in. From inside they heard the sounds of feet running down a stairway.

"Alright, on three... One. Two. Three!"

The door flew off its hinges and fell into the house, landing with a loud bang on the floor. Guns were drawn, safeties were off as the agents and backup ran into the building.

"FREEZE!"

And then chaos reigned. Chloe found herself using a couch as cover as the shots began flying. It was a bad choice; bullets tore through the fabric barely missing her. Chloe pulled the trigger of her gun trying to give herself some cover as she ran for the protection of an overturned table.

She found that she wasn't alone; Ross had been using this same piece of furniture.

Bang. Bang. The sound of gunpowder and the smell of it igniting... someone once said that in times like these, time itself seemed to slow; the person who said this, Ross thought should be shot himself. Time may have seemed different, but slower it was not... Except for today. Ross was starting to feel a bit sluggish and although he was ignoring it and focusing on the situation, it was starting to get to him. He chalked it up to fatigue and kept pushing himself.

"Ten of them. We outnumber them."

Chloe moved and pulled a few shots, hitting at least one of the suspects in the shoulder before ducking back behind the table.

"You mean we _outnumbered_ them. Either way there were supposed to be more unless the intel was wrong," Chloe said through gritted teeth.

Across the room Marcus was in much the same situation. Using a wall as cover, he was trying to disable as many of the suspects as possible.

There was a moment of constant gunfire. Then someone from the dark shouted something. It sounded like Spanish or Portuguese. It was in a language that Chloe didn't know, but she'd never been good at foreign languages. At this command seven of the suspects ran out the front door leaving three to cover them.

Marcus didn't wait for anyone as he ran out the back door, going around the house to catch them. He got there just in time to see a van pull away. He ran after it and tried to hit the tires but to no avail. There was no license plate on the vehicle, not that he could see. The windows on the white van were deeply tinted. He didn't even take the time to kick himself over it before running back through the front door. Marcus arrived in time to shoot the last of the three suspects who'd been left behind.

The three suspects were dead on the floor. Chloe got up, looking around, her gun drawn just in case there were others waiting. Marcus was kneeling by one of the bodies, looking for some identification when Chloe walked up behind him. He stood as she approached.

"They got away. No plates. White van. Seven of them. This one has no ID," he reported.

"No, that'd be too easy," Chloe said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. Her heart was still pounding and she was surprised that she was able to function. She was always puzzled how she was able to keep going after these instances. And so the inspection continued.

Chloe's eyes scanned the scene, and then she saw him.

Ross Kessler was sprawled out on the floor, his eyes darting around, as if trying to figure out where he was.

"Marcus!" Chloe didn't waste a second in rushing to Ross' side. "Ross, what happened?" And then she saw his shirt. How had she not seen it before? The shirt he was wearing was soaked in blood.

Chloe's heart had finally started to slow, only speed up again. She dropped to the agent's side. "Ross! Ross can you hear me?!"

Kessler turned his head slightly towards the voice and a small look of recognition in his eyes.

"So, did we get him?" 

Marcus opened his mouth to answer, but before he could get a word out Chloe spoke.

"Yeah, Ross. We got him."

"Good." 

The sounds of sirens were coming towards them, but from the look in his eye, it was clear that Ross was fading... Chloe was next to where he was lying, Marcus was on his other side.

She silently preyed that he'd hold on just a little bit longer.

"Hey, Chlo'," Ross looked up at her again, "you come to dinner."

Chloe tried to laugh at the statement, like she always did, but it was rather strained. "Why Ross Kessler are you asking me out?" She was straining to hold it together; Ross didn't even seem to notice.

"No, I'm not. Little Mary is. She misses her Aunt Chloe. So whatdya say, O'Brian?" he asked with a small smile. His eyes were starting to close more. She was certain now that he wasn't going to make it. Oh why couldn't those sirens get here faster?!

"You tell little Mary Ella that I'll be there on Friday. Seven sharp." She was holding his hand now, and squeezed it. Somehow she was managing to hold back the tears.

He nodded ever so slightly. "She'll be happy to hear it. I'll tell her. She misses you." With a look over at Marcus, he turned back to Chloe, smiling again. His eyes were nearly closed... and then... with a final squeeze of her hand, Ross Kessler was gone.

And it was silent. The moment stretched out and memories of the past seven years flashed through Chloe's mind. She stared for a moment, forgetting that Marcus was even there. Patting his hand, she squeezed it one more time, murmuring to herself. 

"I'll take care of them, Ross. I promise."

She put his hand down over his chest, and with her head down, closed her eyes. She took a moment and steeled herself as she stood up. Her face was emotionless as she turned to Marcus.

"You stay with Ross." This was not a request. Her voice was like her face, devoid of any inflection or feeling, her eyes bland and lifeless.

Marcus opened his mouth to argue, but she was already out the door. He ran after her only to see her pull away in the SUV, As she tor down the road the second backup team and the ambulance arrived. He had a very bad feeling about this.

Collier fumbled as he tried to pull out his cell. He pressed in a number and waited.

"This is Marcus Collier. I need to speak to Bill Buchanan. It's urgent!"

It was like looking for a needle in a haystack...only worse. Trying to locate an unmarked, unplated white van in suburban LA? On the other hand, if he couldn't do it, who could? Word had gotten around that the team was safe; they'd taken at least four casualties. To Jack, while he had reassurance that Chloe was still in one piece, he had yet to hear from her and something about that made him rather uneasy.

Half an hour ago, Bill had gotten a phone call from Marcus Collier. Jack hadn't been privy to the content of the conversation other than the information that Chloe was safe and the description of the van he was currently tracking. But something about Bill's demeanor when he'd approached caused Jack to worry a bit. Something was up. The question was what.

Jack was working on a new search pattern when Bill walked over to Tech 2 and spoke with Edgar for a moment. The look on Edgar's face when the conversation finished brought the question out of Jack.

"What's going on, Edgar?"

Edgar Stiles hesitated before he started speaking. "Bill jus' told me that there's a body in the morgue. It ain't Chloe, she's fine," he reported.

"I heard," Jack was relieved that she was fine, but the hesitance in Edgar's voice meant that there was more to the story. He wasn't sure he wanted to know but he had to satisfy his curiosity. "Who is it?"

"Ross Kessler."

"Kessler?" Jack turned to face Edgar.

"Yeah. He got hit by the sniper and bled out." Edgar had a very somber tone and look on his face. "I knew him. Good guy."

Jack's mind was suddenly speeding again. He hadn't known Kessler, not really, but she had... Now the feeling he had was going from bad to worse.

"Edgar, where's Chloe."

Edgar looked around for a moment. "Uh...I don't know, Jack. You haven't heard from her?"

Jack didn't answer. Out of the corner of his eye he saw security running down the corridor. "Edgar, cover for me." With that he dashed off the floor and after the security personnel.

His head was full of the what-ifs. Could it have been her? As he followed security, he caught bits and pieces of conversation.

"How'd she get in?"

"Apparently she came in through one of the back doors."

"Which one?"

The back door? The back entrances required not only a code, but a high level security clearance to get in. These thoughts raced through his head.

The chase led them to Medical.

Chloe O'Brian had her arm pressed down over the throat of the man she'd been interrogating earlier in the day. Her eyes were narrow slits and her face showed that she was giving no mercy.

She spoke through gritted teeth while her other hand moved towards her holster. "This is your last chance Turner...Talk."

The security team circled the pair, Jack stood behind them, looking over their shoulders as the guards started moving for her. He knew that this wouldn't end well. He did what he had to do. Breaking through the chain of guards he looked back as if to say 'I have this one' and walked towards Chloe. Before she could draw her firearm, he'd grabbed her hand and pulled her back from Vincent Turner.

"GET OFF OF ME!"

Chloe wasn't taken easily. She started fighting against Jack, trying to break out of his grip as he pulled her out of medical.

"Let Go!" Chloe flailed and managed to hit Jack in the head, but he didn't let go. Struggling, Jack managed to pull Chloe into the corridor. Security locked down medical and the staff went toward Turner checking on him. She could see it happening through the door.

"Get off of me!" she growled out. She finally was able to ram her elbow into her 'captor'. It hurt a bit but he did his best to hold her fast. He turned her around and pushed her back against the wall holding her there.

"Chloe stop!"

She didn't even look at him. "Get out of my way, Jack," she practically growled out.

"No! You were gonna kill him."

"It's no less than he deserved!" She was straining to hold it together.

"Chloe, listen to yourself. You don't mean that. You're not a murderer!"

Chloe's eyes took on a very dangerous gleam as she narrowed them. "Don't you _DARE_ tell me what I am or what I'm not. I didn't get in your way when you wanted to get revenge for Teri. I helped you! What right do you have to get in the way of my getting it for Ross?!" Her tone was sharp... angry...furious. "He has Ellen and three girls! THREE! What am I supposed to tell them? That I couldn't get the guy who did it?!"

Jack was at a loss for words. He didn't know what to say to this. In his momentary distraction, Chloe finally managed to push him away. She didn't stick around, she ran down the corridor out the back entrance she'd used before. Jack ran after her. He didn't know which way she went. By the time he figured it out she was gone.

Chloe made it out to the SUV and climbed in. It was only then that it all hit her and Chloe O'Brian did something that she'd only done twice in her career at CTU.

Chloe O'Brian broke down.


	4. Chapter 4

Extrapolation  
Chapter 4

She knew she shouldn't. She'd been told to stay where she was, but there was just too much to see. It was all familiar to her. She knew this place, she was sure of it.

She didn't want to stay sitting still. She wanted to explore! The sounds and busy atmosphere spurred her on. She wandered wide-eyed at the many different things going on at once. Looking up she saw the window. She could see him standing beyond it, but he wasn't looking back so she was safe. She felt like one of those super spies from the stories her daddy had told her. She liked sneaking around undetected like this. She was very pleased with herself right now. She pretended she was the character from the story. She used a wall as cover and quickly moved to the "safety" of a desk. She let out a laugh. Some people heard it, but when they looked around didn't see anyone. And how could they? She was an espe... espy... she was a spy!She looked at a map with lots of lights on it, trying to memorize it, before making her way to the next location. Through the clusters of desks, around the unsuspecting, unnoticing workers... She got down on her hands and knees, peering around the corner, checking if the coast was clear. She looked over her shoulder to make sure she hadn't lost Ery. Her partner was right behind her as they sneaked through the facility. She came across an abandoned area, perfect for hiding the pair. They crawled in and sat, waiting for the right time to make their move. They were quite a team, Ery always had her back.When she felt it was safe to go she gave the motion and crept out. She thought he was right behind her, but when she looked she saw he was not. He'd been left behind and worse, the entrance was no longer safe to use. He was trapped...until she could find a way to save him. From her new hiding spot she looked at Ery, promising she'd be back for him. She hovered around, trying to see if there was an opening, any way of getting to her friend. Seeing none, she looked once more and then kept going. She'd be back. Sneaking around the next obstacle barely avoiding detection she was drawn to the table ahead of her.The computer screen drew her attention. She crept towards the desk, her hands grabbed onto the side edge as she attempted to peer over and see... "Hey!"She turned around suddenly."How did you get in here?"The man had a moustache and a big nose.Her first mission was over. She was caught. She didn't say anything. She wasn't supposed to talk to enemy agents...or strangers. The man looked to the side as he heard someone approach. The man was holding Ery. "Well, look what I found," he said. "I wonder, where could he have come from." The pint-sized super agent hadn't looked at his face, but the voice she recognized immediately. "Uncle Jack!" She ran to him and hugged his leg as the enemy agent gave Ery's savior a puzzled look. "Uncle Jack, you saved Ery!" she said with a big grin. "Saved Ery, did I?" he inquired. "Uh huh! He's my partner!" She smiled brightly as the teddy bear was handed back to her, still in the backpack she carried him in. He helped her put the bag back on her back. She'd held her partner and gave him a big hug.

For all his worries about what had occurred, Jack Bauer couldn't help but grin... not only at what he'd noticed the girl doing, playing spy -- 'It must run in the blood,' he'd thought -- but also at the look on Milo Pressman's face.He stifled a chuckle, one at Milo's expense, before looking down at the little girl in his arms and affectionately messing up her hair. "This is Milo Pressman." Looking at Milo this time, Jack added, "Milo, this is Angela Edmunds.""Angela Chloe Edmunds," the little girl said, impressing upon the unspoken name.Jack smiled down at her with a shake of his head, slightly amused. "Right. Angela Chloe Edmunds. Chase's daughter."Milo suddenly felt a wave of recognition hit him. He couldn't help but think to himself that she'd gotten big...but then again that was what happened to kids, wasn't it? He didn't verbalize his thought, just nodded and said, "It's nice to meet you." before turning to Jack again. "So, if she's who you say she is, that means that Chase is here somewhere." He looked around. "But I don't see him."Jack shook his head, a slight smile playing on his lips. "Well maybe out little agent-in-training can be tickle-tortured into telling us where he's hiding," he grinned and picking the little girl up he started to tickle her.

Needless to say, Angela was in no position to stop him. Her laughter was a change from the normal sounds of CTU. It was, moreover, a sharp contrast to the slightly mournful atmosphere since Ross' death. It was practically music as far as Jack was concerned.He finally thought that she'd talk...she'd have talked to him right away, but in truth he'd just done it on an impulse. He'd been a father himself once, it didn't feel so long ago to him...well some days it didn't, but Kim was grown up now. Still it was the little things, like this, that he'd most enjoyed when Kimmy (she hated that nickname now) had been growing up.Jack stopped the tickling and it took a moment before she'd stopped laughing enough to speak. "Daddy's up there with Mr. Bluecana."

Jack looked at her for a moment, deciphering the 'Angie-speak' and coming up with English. "Mr. Buchanan?"

She thought for a moment, thinking, comparing the name she thought was right to the correction, finally deciding that he probably had it right. "Yeah, him."

"So, what's your dad talking to him about?" Jack attempted.

Angela smiled up at him innocently, in that way only a small child could and said, "Uncle Jack, I can't tell you that, silly."

"Oh? And why not?""I cassified it. It's top secret."

"Why is it Classified?" Jack askedShe puffed her chest out a bit. "It's for daddy to know and for me to find out. It's so secret I don't even know what it is yet," she said with a slightly impish smile. "But daddy said that Mama C needed a friend now, so I brought Ery so he can be her friend too!" she held the bear up a little bit."Well, I'm sure he's good at giving bear hugs," Jack smiled as the little girl in his arms giggled. "That's funny."

"I thought I told you to wait for me on the couch."

Milo silently took his leave, heading back to his desk. He was still questioning why a person would willingly bring their child to a place like CTU, but as he didn't have to worry about it...he didn't.

Jack didn't even have to turn around to know who had just approached. The familiar voice of Agent Chase Edmunds was one that wasn't heard around the office hub anymore.

Angela put on a winning smile. "Hi daddy! Look who I found!"

Chase shook his head a bit... he'd deal with her disobedient behavior later. "Hey Jack. Long time no see."

"Yeah, that happens when you transfer to the other side of the country."

"Weak attempt at humor there."

Jack ignored this comment in its entirety as Angela cut in again.

"Daddy, I found Uncle Jack, so can I keep him?"

It was what was needed at that moment. A slight smile appeared at the edges of Chase's mouth. Jack put the little girl down and she walked over to her father and grabbed his hand.

"Well he won't fit in that terrarium, so I think that the answer will have to be no, at least until we get a bigger one."

Despite the light-hearted banter things were weighing heavily on him.

Five years of raising his little girl had taught him how put the 'everything it fine' mask on the same way a person flicked on a light switch. Angela was smart and he knew that one day, hopefully a day in the very distant future, she might catch on. But until then, he would do everything to protect her. He knew that she was already playing spy. She'd pop out from under the dining room table or the closet by the kitchen. She loved jumping out and going 'Boo' or 'Freeze.' He wasn't doing a good job with deterring her from this life...but he kept her and work separate as much as possible. After all, there was no way to completely separate her from his life at CTU. When he went out on a mission the head of NY CTU would assign an agent to basically act as a bodyguard. There had been some hesitance on the part of the hierarchy of NY CTU on this point, but he'd made it perfectly clear that if they wanted him there, they would do this, no ifs, ands or buts. He didn't take chances with his daughter's safety. Never.

Even if Angela didn't see it, Jack did. The almost 'on-automatic' look in his eyes...suddenly the temporary sanctuary of laugher cracked and shattered, forcing the harsh ceiling of reality to come crashing down.

Jack forced a smile onto his face and knelt down so he was eye to eye with the little girl. "Hey, kiddo, why don't you run over and see Edgar. He was just telling me yesterday how much he missed you."

Angela's smile broadened and she looked up at her father with expectant eyes. "Can I, Daddy?"

Jack looked up at Chase and the agent nodded ever so slightly. The two had to talk.

"Alright, darlin', but don't go wandering off again. We're leaving soon."

"Uh-huh." With that the pint-sized ball of energy ran off.

Rising back to his full height, Jack watched for a moment as the girl tackled Edgar. Focusing on Chase, the smile he'd held only moments before turned serious and a bit sad. "I guess I don't need to ask what you're doing here."

It was rather clear why Chase had made the long flight from New York to Los Angeles with his daughter. There was only one reason for him to be here. And that was Chloe...or Ross Kessler. It might have been cold, but Chloe was Jack's main concern. She kept invading his thoughts. He was losing focus and barely able to concentrate. This was an odd thing for him. Even Buchanan's attempts to speak with him hadn't helped. Jack couldn't recall this happening before.

Chase turned his head for a moment, keeping tabs on his daughter. She was currently sitting on Edgar's lap playing with a new toy he'd picked up sometime last week or the week before.

"So did Chloe call you?" Jack asked. He had tried to think of a more subtle way to say it, but it hadn't worked.

"No, Bill did. Booked the first flight I could get. Didn't even have time to tell the boss I was leaving... Just ran out of work, packed some things, pulled Ang' out of school because of a family emergency, and ran to the airport."

This wasn't what Jack was expecting at all.

"You mean you haven't heard from her?" If he'd been worried before this threw him for a loop.

"No. Not a word...to either of us," he paused for a second, rubbing his temples, "Bill briefed me." He exhaled, cradling his head with his hand. "I had really hoped that you had some good news..."

Chase had never looked particularly young...well he hadn't seemed as such. Working at CTU did something to a person. A bright-eyed intern would be aged in six months. It might not manifest itself physically, but the eyes... you could see it in their eyes. And at the moment, Jack could see how much of a toll this line of work had taken on him since the last time he'd seen him. Chase's eyes seemed tired, a bit dull, not holding the life that he saw in the picture Chloe kept in her desk. He seemed tired...worn out. Come to think of it, Jack wasn't certain he looked any better.

"I wish there was better news to give, Chase..." What else could be said? He meant it. Sure. How could he not? That problem with field agents was that they were trained in what to do if they wanted to disappear. How did someone track a ghost?!

Chase tried not to think about the pounding in his head as he continued. "Truer words were never said... Look I'm gonna take Ang' and head over to her place... y'know, in case she went home. But if she's not picking up..."

Jack simply nodded with a sigh of his own. No more words were necessary. Both knew what the other was going to say. Working with one another for years did have advantages such as this.

"Chase, let me know if you find her, would you?"

"You don't even need to ask it, Jack. It's already done."

Traffic was a bitch. It wasn't an opinion, it was a fact.

She had sat there with her forehead against the steering wheel for over three hours. Apparently there was a backup caused by some huge car pileup...or had it been a watermelon spill? It was one or the other...she couldn't remember which... In the state she was currently in, however, she was pretty sure it was the watermelons.

You could have told Chloe O'Brian that the sky was purple with polkadots and she probably wouldn't have even been able to say much other than 'yeah'. She was unfocused. Her mind was sharp as a tack, yet things seemed to be going by so slowly...

She never wanted to feel this way. After Daryll and Mason...she had tried so hard to keep this sort of thing from happening again. Ross had been wearing a vest...but it hadn't protected him.

She was on automatic, but despite this she knew that there was only one place where she was needed... The ride had been quiet. Her cell phone had rung a few times. She'd turned it off. She didn't want to talk to Bill. She didn't want to talk to Edgar. She certainly didn't want to talk to Jack...after what she'd said. She knew she was out of line bringing Teri into it like that. She'd been angry...

Somewhere at the back of her mind, she knew that she wasn't wrong, but she was guilty. Was it right to bring a dead loved one into conversation as she had?

It was all just too much.

Driving up in front of the house she took note of the number of vehicles sitting in the driveway and against the curb. It had been hours since the calls had gone out. Chloe parked the car and stepped out.

The familiar house brought a small smile to her face, before once again reality stepped in and she closed her eyes. The lawn was cut, the tree house she, Ross, Ellen and Chase had built for the girls six years ago sat in the old oak. That had been the first time she or Chase had ever built something like that. Ross had convinced them that it would be fun. Maggie had been 11, Tracey, 8; the girls had practically begged them to help. Mary hadn't been born yet, neither had Angela.

Chloe started to walk to the front door. She was about to ring the doorbell when she glanced in the window. The house was full of people. It made sense because of the cars. Why else would there be vehicles lining the curb or the driveway? She recognized most of them. Uncles, cousins...Ross' sister-in-law looked out the window, but Chloe ducked back before she was spotted.

Blood and married relations.

Chloe was close to the Kesslers, but she knew that this wasn't right. She didn't belong here. Not now. How could she face them? She was responsible for this gathering. If she'd done her job, Ross wouldn't be...

Through the window she saw the girls. They were seated on the couch, Maggie seemed to be thinking, Tracey detached. Mary, bless the innocence of children...Little Mary Ella Kessler didn't seem to understand why this was happening. She was walking around with her favorite doll, a dog named Rosie, under her arm, trying to give people hugs to make them feel better...

She couldn't stay here. What right did she have to go in there? She was the reason this had happened. Ross Kessler was never coming home. What could have made her think that she should come here? She wasn't welcome here...she knew it.

She backed away from the house. She didn't want to get back into the vehicle. It was too closed...to confining. She wanted air, space...

Stuffing her hands into the pockets of her coat, Chloe walked away.

It had gotten worse after Chase and Angela left, so much so that Bill had finally relieved Jack of duty. He wasn't happy about it. Jack knew that this was stupid. Here he was unable to concentrate on anything (not that he was currently doing anything as there was no new information on the case right now...and there wouldn't be until Turner woke up...the suspect was sort of sedated...) and it was very unlike him.

Bill had told him that under no circumstances, short of nuclear disaster or national crisis, was he to return to CTU headquarters that day... He found it rather ironic that most people would have taken this to mean 'See you tomorrow.' But Jack wasn't most people. The use of the term 'nuclear disaster' and 'national crisis' meant 'you're on call,' because at the Counter Terrorism Unit you never knew what you might be dealing with on an hour to hour basis.

His cell phone was on and in his pocket as he made the drive from CTU. He had a stop to make on his way home.

Home. The word was rather foreign sounding at this point. He'd been at CTU for the past three days, getting what sleep he could in the break room. He'd learned years ago that sometimes it paid to keep changes of clothes in your locker... just in case. You never knew how long you might be on duty. Again, it was CTU after all.

Surprisingly, he wasn't tired... no, actually it wasn't so surprising. After everything that had happened, the shooting, the breakdown in the hallway... Her comment in the hallway had caught him off guard. He wouldn't admit it to anyone...except maybe her if she asked. Teri...he knew it callous, but it had been six and a half years and every day... not that he didn't think of her still, but... Was it wrong that he found her no longer central in his mind?

He'd always love her...but it was different now. Kim had once asked him about falling in and out of love. What had he known about answering questions like that? He'd done his best. Did someone fall out of love...? He sighed and shook his head. Why were these questions coming to him? Now of all times? Now when he was going to pay his respects to a fallen colleague?

Before he realized it he'd reached his destination. 16 Rosaria Place. It was a two story light blue house with a nice lawn and... He turned and saw something in the oak tree. 'That must be that tree house she was always talking about,' he thought with a wisp of a smile.

Pulling up across the street, Jack stepped out of the car. Turning on the alarm, he glanced around at the other vehicles. One in particular caught his eye: a familiar blue Mazda parked along the opposite curb.

He suddenly felt a little bit less worried... She was here.

Jack crossed the street and walked up the path to the front door. He hated these sort of things... The reason for this sort of visit. The conversation... He'd been on the receiving end of this same situation only several years before...

Ringing the bell, he found himself facing a red-headed girl.

"Good afternoon."

The young woman didn't say anything at first, choosing instead to scrutinize his face. Suddenly recognition seemed to dawn. "Mister Bauer?"

He didn't speak, just nodded.

Margaret "Maggie" Kessler let out a sigh, closing her eyes for a moment before moving aside. "Please come in."

All the mirrors were covered. This was the first thing that Jack noticed as he looked around the room; the second was the milk crates sitting upside down on the floor. Through the crowd of visitors, Maggie made her way back to the couch where she had left her sisters. They took little notice of the activity going on around them, and Jack could tell Maggie just wanted everyone to leave.

He continued looking around, and his eyes found Ellen. Ellen Kessler-Cohen was in an argument with someone...possibly a sister or a sister-in-law. There were people standing in groups, chatting away, and others, seated on the crates, who seemed to have lost all will to speak. It was all too familiar...

Jack made several attempts to talk to Ellen, but each time something or someone got in the way... After twenty minutes, he'd instead written a note for her, and was trying to find a place to put it where she would see it. He'd come back and speak to her at another time. Now it was too hectic... But there was something else that was bothering him.

Jack had taken Chloe's car outside to be a sign that she had come here, that she'd come to be with those she cared about, but he didn't see her. His concern growing, he suddenly felt a tug on his hand.

"Hi Mister Jack!"

Mary.

Jack looked down at the girl, not knowing whether to smile or not. But he didn't get the chance as the girl kept talking.

"Hey, Mister Jack, if you're here, does that mean Auntie Chloe is too?"

His brow furrowed a bit. It took him a moment to process the question. Whatever he'd assumed, it was clear that he'd been completely wrong...

"She's not here..." the words, murmured, went unheard by the little girl, who, realizing that she wasn't getting a response, moved on to something else as Jack ran back to his car.

Why did he assume that Chloe would do something that made some sort of logical sense? He knew that under any other circumstances she wouldn't have let anything keep her away, but he wasn't thinking like her at the moment.

He closed the door and reached into his pocket for his phone. He'd tried before, and now the outcome was no different: Chloe's voicemail.

He grabbed his laptop bag from the back seat. Setting the machine up, he brought it out of sleep mode. He knew he shouldn't do this, but this was an emergency... He was worried. If something had happened... He didn't want to think about that.

Opening the software, Jack set to work. Hacking into CTU's system, he used a backdoor he'd written into the program to access the data without being detected. Bill was concerned enough; Jack didn't see any reason in setting off the protocols. If they were set off, it would bring the inquiry into Chloe's locator chip location to the attention of whoever had Field Ops right now. Normally it would bring the breach of security straight to his station, but as he wasn't logged into the system, the alternative was Field Ops.

Jack waited for several moments, waiting for the information to come up on the monitor, but nothing happened. 'That can't be right...' He tried again. He'd done everything right...hell he'd written the program, of course he'd done it all correctly! Again, he received no results. After a few more attempts with the same result, he came to the answer.

"...she took the chip out," he muttered to himself. No one was supposed to know about these trackers, no one but him, Edgar, maybe Milo, and Bill.

His first attempt a failure, he tried triangulating her cell phone signal. Another dead end. This was getting him nowhere. Jack was getting frustrated, and the more time passed, the more the knot at the pit of his stomach grew. The thought that the men who'd killed Kessler had found her crossed his mind and he tried desperately to ignore it, telling himself that now was not the time.

Pulling up a live satellite grid of the area he did a unit by unit search for the agent. There were three women who he thought might be her, but upon taking a closer look they were all eliminated. Interestingly, it was only when the technology failed that it hit him...

'Now that's an idea.'

What if she hadn't left?

His eyes drifted to the oak tree and the ladder leading to the tree house and a small smile spread over his face.

He looked for a moment before shrugging and starting to make his way up the ladder, ignoring the sign: **No Boys Allowed**.

His head appeared to be coming out of the floor.

"Hey, room for one mor-" He stopped mid-word.

The tree house was surprisingly very clean. In fact, looked very comfortable. The space held a table and a few chairs in one corner, but the rest of the space looked like a hang out... There were pillows and blankets scattered...and lying in the middle of the pile of pillows was Chloe.

Jack climbed into the tree house, cautiously, in case it wouldn't hold his weight (which he soon realized would not be a problem) and sat at the edge of the opening. His hand bumped into something cold as he shifted. Chloe's gun. The entrance to the tree house was opposite where Chloe lay. Looking down he noticed her CTU ID was not far from the gun and there was an odd spot on the wall... 'She must have thrown them,' he realized.

Jack was too tall to stand here. He crawled over instead.

She was lying under a blanket in a nest of pillows. Even though the bedding, as it was, looked comfortable, she did not. Her hair was messy, having fallen from her ponytail into her face. She was stiff as a board. As Jack watched, the movements behind her closed eyelids began to slow as she came out of REM sleep. She seemed to relax as the stage faded and she was able to move again. She curled her legs closer to her body and murmured something unintelligible. She was sleeping rather deeply, it made sense, she hadn't slept in three days. Unfortunately the short period of what looked like peaceful sleep was short lived as her features fell and she started to move around fretfully.

Jack put an arm on her shoulder trying to calm her down... how was one supposed to calm someone who was asleep, he didn't know. But it appeared to work, as she settled down, moving closer to the warmth and he wrapped an arm around her, drawing her a little closer.

She needed sleep, after all that had happened... Jack couldn't help but wonder just how much one person could possibly take? With all Chloe had seen over the years...hell, with everything that had happened today, coupled with the 72-hours she'd been awake... He wondered how much of that had played into the incident this afternoon.

He looked down at her with a softened look, brushing the hair out of her face; it was then that he saw the tear tracks staining her cheeks. He unconsciously brushed his thumb over them, placing a kiss on her forehead. She was still now, her breathing evened drastically as he held her, stroking her hair.

"You really had me worried there," he whispered. "I'm gonna see you through this, Chloe. You'll see, it'll all be okay... I promise."


	5. Chapter 5

Extrapolation  
Chapter 5

There had been a big explosion that day...just another unfortunately normal day at CTU.

On the other side of her linkup with CTU Chloe O'Brian found herself getting instructions from someone who wasn't Adam. Here she was, running for her life down a corridor with some crazy terrorist-types on her tail and the only thing she could think to say was "Who the heck is this?"

"Take a left."

"Is there anyone coming at me from the south..."

"Then hang a right. A sharp righ- No a left!" the voice continued.

"Right then left, got it..."

There was gunfire behind her. "Oh this just keeps getting better and better." She grabbed her gun and did her best to run whilst trying to give herself some cover.

"You're home free, O'Brian. There's the door. Once you get through it, duck!"

Chloe flew through the doorway and flung herself onto the ground as the bullets started flying from the agents standing in wait.

After about three minutes the bullets stopped and the masculine voice on the other side of the earpiece came back, he was clearly smiling a bit... "Well, that's it. You're clear." His voice cut to the point.

Chloe couldn't help it. Still sprawled out on the ground she let out a laugh... and then couldn't stop. Curtis and Tony stood there, looking down at her with looks of utter bafflement and concern on their faces.

It was only when she got a bit of a hold on herself that she spoke again, but all she could say was. "God..." before she started laughing again. The whole situation had been so... so... she couldn't even explain it. She let out a sigh, pulling herself together and looked up at them, running a hand through her loose bangs, shaking her head. "Never a dull moment in this job..."

By the time they'd got back to CTU, she'd been able to convince both Curtis and Tony that she wasn't cracking up. This was a very good thing too, the last thing CTU needed was an active field agent who might be going insane... Then again there were those who could argue that you needed to be a bit crazy to have this job, but that was neither here nor there.

It was quitting time now, in Chloe's opinion it hadn't come a moment too soon. She was walking passed Field Ops when she heard that voice again. It was almost familiar; she stopped and leaned against the desk.

"So, busy day, eh? Running from bad guys, ducking from bullets," she said with a small, slightly amused smile. "I don't think we've met yet."

The blond man looked up from his computer screen when he realized that he was being spoken to. "Hi. No I can't say that we have." At this he stood.

He was taller than Chloe, with blue eyes which, she was sure if he'd wanted them to, could pierce the soul. He wore a somewhat easy-going, lazy smile. It was probably because it was quitting time, but somehow it suited him.

She held out a hand. "I'm Chloe O'Brian. It's nice to meet you."

The man chuckled to himself, causing Chloe to look at him puzzled. "I know who you are. I read your file," he said this with a knowing grin that could have been classified as boyish in nature. He took the offered hand and shook it. "Jack Bauer."

So she finally had his name. She'd been thrown for a bit of a loop when he'd popped over her earpiece. But all was fine now.

"Well it's good to finally have a name to go with the voice," she smiled.

It was then that two men walked up behind Chloe, one was about Chloe's age, a man Jack had worked with before named Chase Edmunds, the other a field agent named Ross Kessler.

"So there you are," Chase said with a smirk. "Thought you'd left without us, Chlo'."

Chloe turned around, facing the two men with hands on her hips and a playful smirk on her lips. "Now would I do a thing like that?" This brought a laugh from Kessler who supplemented it with a "So, shall we be off?"

With Chloe in the middle the three linked arms and started walking away. As they left Chloe unlinked arms with Chase and turned around. "It was nice meeting you, Jack! Have a good night! See you tomorrow!" She waved at him before facing front again. She didn't re-link arms with Chase afterward.

As they walked through the doors to the parking lot Chase turned to them.

"Can I have some pudding?"

'...Pudding?' This caught Chloe off guard. That wasn't Chase's voice... Why was a little girl's voice coming out of Chase's mouth?

"I don't know think there's any to have. Tell you what, I'll look for some, you go and play quietly."

She wasn't sure if she'd heard that correctly... and why did Ross suddenly sound like Chase and... and... Where the hell was she?! She blinked and looked around. 'This isn't CTU...'

Chloe heard voices...

"Okay."

...and footsteps.

She instinctively reached over to her nightstand and the drawer where she kept her gun. She was about to open the drawer when it hit her. She was in her bed?

She heard the creak of a door open and quickly turned her head. Her hair flew around her face, temporarily blocked her line of vision, and in that moment she was assaulted by the intruder.

"Mama!"

'Mama...?'

Her assailant looked up with a big grin on her face. "You're up!"

"I'm...uh...what?" Now that her instinct had faded it would be pretty accurate to say that Chloe O'Brian was disoriented. She was at home? In her bed? The last thing she remembered was the tree house and a voice talking to her... 'That all happened...right?' She shook her head, waking herself up a bit more, rubbing her eyes as she left the place between sleeping and waking. "Angie?" She was puzzled, but as the realization that this wasn't another dream hit her, her eyes widened and her mouth opened, soon becoming a smile. "Oh my god, Angie?!"

She pushed the girl back for a moment, looking her over before pulling her into a hug. It lasted for a few moments before something occurred to her and she held the girl again at arms length, worry etched on her features. "Wait, what's going on? How did you get here? Is everything al-"

"Well you know how it is, Chlo'. We flew in, and since we were in the neighborhood..."

She froze.

"Chase?" She spoke so quietly that the words almost didn't escape her lips. And there he was turning her around before gathering her into his arms.

A small smile crossed his lips. "So, you haven't been able to forget me yet, have you?" he said. He was kidding around, trying to make her laugh, smile, anything.

"Kind of hard to forget the person who seems to know what I'm thinking even if I don't," she said, a sad smile momentarily pulling at her lips.

There was a momentary silence and Angela quietly excused herself, going off to find a place to play, leaving the adults alone.

Chloe knew why he was here and he knew what was wrong. Chase could tell...he always could.

He rubbed circles on her back, trying to comfort her. "I miss him, Chase..." The words were flat, but that was her holding control.

He held her a bit closer, closing his eyes and pursing his lips together. "I know Chloe... I do too." He sighed and looked at her. "But I know you…you said that. And you can't let this eat you alive. I heard about Ross and I couldn't help but wonder what the fuck I was doing in New York. I should have been here; if I had been here this wouldn't have happened. It would have been you and me, like the old days… The three of us. And we'd go out and have dinner with the Kessler-Edmunds-O'Brian contingent..." he paused. "But now, all we can do is catch the bastards."

"I don't want to relax, Chase... I need to stay sharp." she said softly, returning the hug and leaning her head against him.

"Then stay sharp, but don't bother trying to pull away... You know how it is, Chlo'. It's like a Chinese finger trap. The more you pull away, the harder it is to get away, or the tighter we get. You get to choose which analogy." he paused for a moment. "Ross wouldn't want you to beat yourself up over this, darlin'."

She didn't comment on his last statement, asking instead, "So how did I get back here?"

A small smile crossed Chase's face as he answered. "Jack found ya, brought you back."

"I was up in a tree house... how on earth...no why on earth would he go up in a tree house?" She was utterly puzzled by this. It made no sense and the fact that Chase let out a laugh caused her to shoot a look in his direction. "And what is so funny, hmmm?" a slight frown crossing her face.

"Chloe, if I haven't told you recently, I love you. You're one of a kind and you're priceless. Don't ever change." He let out another chuckle, squeezed her shoulder and stood up pulling her up with him. "C'mon. Forget I said anything. Let's get something to eat. I left Jack in the kitchen looking for pudding for Angie."

She just followed him out puzzling over something. It was several moments before she spoke again, more quietly, muttering, "...I thought it was you wanted the pudding..."

Chloe and Chase stepped into the kitchen, she saw Jack and Angela sitting at the table… they'd found her stash of chocolate pudding. The two were just about to sit down when the phone to rang. Chloe sighed and grabbed the handset.

"Hello?"

The lock clicked and the doorknob turned. Slowly the door to the study opened and Margaret 'Maggie' Kessler was faced with an odd predicament. The room had changed from the way she'd left it. This was strange because, in truth, she was currently the only person with a key to the door. But that didn't seem to stop the intruder from breaking in through the window.

The study of Ross Kessler was nothing special. It was a home office, or would be for someone with a job more normal than his. He had called it a study because he thought it sounded better. He was an interesting fellow, no one had ever faulted him for that...or at least not that Maggie could recall.

She glanced around the room taking in the damage; there was very little of it, but most of it was concentrated under his...desk.

"Oh shit..."

The redheaded girl rushed over to the desk and crouched down beneath the desk.

The office was normal, it was the desk that was special. It had a secret compartment built into it. It was a compartment known only to Ross and his eldest daughter, as was what was kept within... Or what _had_ been kept within.

The maroon folder was gone. The compartment was always locked, so whoever took the folder had known that the compartment was here... they had smashed the hidden lock with a... Was that a bullet casing? They'd shot the lock?

The papers were gone. Maggie never really understood what the papers were. She'd only seen them briefly. From what she could tell the papers contained lists, important lists. Ross had told Maggie about them, just in case. He told her that she should find a way to keep a record of them, as a back up, and make sure the papers were safe. He'd showed her where they were. They were always locked up.

She couldn't understand it. No one knew about the compartment. Her mother didn't even know about it... Maggie had come to his study earlier in the day and taken pictures of the papers with her camera phone. Her father's words kept ringing in her head. "Keep some kind of a safe record for yourself, Mags. It could just save your life one day."

To document what had happened she took some more pictures of the room showing the damage to the lock. She marked the spot where the casing had been and took a picture of that. This all might be useful later...for what, who knew. But she knew one thing, it was important, it could save her life.

She grabbed the key to her father's study, his gun, and the bullet casing. After photographing the open window and she securing it, Maggie left her father's study, locking the door behind her.

She put the key into her pocket, along with her phone and ran to her mother's bedroom.

"Mom, I'm heading out."

"You're what?" they still had guests.

"I know, I know. We're sitting shiva, but it's an emergency." 'I think...' she added silently. "I've got to go see Aunt Chloe. I'll be back."

She didn't wait for her mother to reply before she walked down the hall into her bedroom. Grabbing her keys, her coat and a hat, Maggie was out the front door. 

They'd gone back to CTU. Why? Edgar wouldn't give them the information over an insecure line. Chloe couldn't understand why he hadn't just called her on her cell phone...until Jack reminded her that she's shut it off.

A phone rang to her left. With a roll of her eyes she picked it up. "O'Brian."

"Well you sound happy."

"What do you think Marcus, I'm trapped behind a desk."

That's right. Chloe O'Brian had been confined to desk duty. Despite Jack's assurances to Bill that she'd finally gotten some sleep, the fatherly Buchanan didn't feel that it would be safe to let her in the field right away. Chloe was grounded...and no arguing on Chloe's part had swayed him from his decision... If anything it had brought him to threaten her with suspension.

"Well I think that you'd be thrilled, I mean you always said that there were days that you'd rather be crunching data." Marcus let out a chuckle which died almost as soon as it left his lips... There was silence on the other end of the line. "Um...why don't I just put Jack on..."

"Yeah. You do that." It didn't take a genius to tell that she was glaring on her end.

There was a muffled conversation on the other side of the call. She could vaguely hear what was said. "Um... Jack it's for you."

"Who is it."

"Her."

"What'd you say?"

"Um..."

"Never mind, give me the phone. This is Jack."

"You think I'd be thrilled? There are days when I'd rather be data crunching? Let me wrap my hands around his neck!" she practically spat out.

Jack and Marcus had been sent to where the white van had been found.

"Chloe, calm down, please?" In truth, Jack was somewhat amused by this. He could only imagine the look on her face. Probably a very deep glare. One that could burn through a person like a magnifying glass-focused beam of sunlight on an ant.

"Don't tell me to calm down, Bauer. I should be out there, not stuck in here!"

"And where is 'here'?" he said amused.

"I'm in Tech 1. Trying to make sense of this data."

"So you _are_ data crunching," he laughed.

He was sure that he could hear the glare darkening as she ground out, "This isn't funny."

"Sorry."

The SUV carrying the two agents pulled to a stop as they found the remains of the burned out van. The back doors were left open... Drawing his gun, Jack signaled to Marcus and they moved in.

There was silence over the phone line. Chloe had pulled up a satellite feed to watch, but she had it behind the data screen she was working on.

As the two agents cleared the area and checked the back of the van. Inside was a man on his back in a white coat. On his chest lay a metal badge.

"Chloe! I need an ambulance. Now! We've got a man down!"


	6. Chapter 6

Extrapolation  
Chapter 6

Bill Buchanan was viewed by many as "the father" of CTU Los Angeles. While no one would call him that to his face, with the possible exceptions of Chloe O'Brian and his wife Karen Hayes, the reputation was there. And whenever one of his "kids" needed him, he was there.

Bill pushed back from his desk and stared at a photograph currently front and center on his computer screen. A metal badge. This man was a federal agent, just like one of his kids. The agent was alive, if just barely. He'd just been doing his job. He didn't deserve this.

He put his head in his hands for a moment, remembering his wife's words. "If you wanted a low-stress job, Bill, you would have transferred out of CTU years ago."

She was right. She was always right. But sometimes he wondered if it was worth it. The spance between him and his wife, the miles between LA and DC... he sighed. It was times like this that he really wished he could just go home and be with her. But he only had that luxury when one of them had time off... When she had time off.

He couldn't dwell right now. He centered his attention on the computer screen in front of him as he picked up his telephone.

"Edgar, I need you to take the information I'm sending to your station and use it to trace the identity of our downed agent..."

Word had been passed that the ambulance had left the scene with the agent inside, but no one knew who he was. Chloe stared at the screen, her fingers flying over the keys as she tried to find something that would lead her to these men. They refused to let her back into Medical... After what she'd tried to do, she couldn't blame the staff, but it was hindering her investigation.

There was nothing. No calls on record that led anywhere. No paper trail. It was like these men didn't exist! The only thing that they had was a single picture of men sitting at a restaurant. But even this wasn't helpful. The light was bad, practically everyone had their backs to the lens and those who didn't were steeped in shadows... and this was the cleaned up version of the damned thing.

It had only been a couple of hours, and yet it felt like days had passed since this morning.

Hadn't she just seen Ross walking through the hallways with his usual corn muffin and orange juice?

She sighed, remembering. She'd been talking to him, walking backwards, clearly not looking where she was going, and had walked right into Jack, causing her to nearly go down for the count. She remembered thinking at the time that neither man would ever let her live it down.

'Live it down...' "Way to word things, O'Brian," she chastised herself.

This was her fault. It didn't matter what the situation was. Whenever she got close to someone, what happened?

Well there had been Morris... her ex-husband. Drunkard. There had been Daryll and Mason, her partners. Dead. There had been Spencer. He'd turned out to be not only a jerk, but a traitor.

There was Ross. Dead now, all because she didn't notice.

And Chase. After what happened... That she could never forgive herself for. Even after the surgery, even though he could still use it, the scar bothered her. She knew she was responsible for it... despite his joking about needing her to open the pickle jar for Angie...

Chloe knew that this wasn't a comedy... well not a funny one. This was a black comedy; one on par with the film MASH with Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould or the television show Hogan's Heroes. If you took away the slapstick and the witty banter and the laugh track, the truth lay that the show was terribly dark. Many people just didn't see passed Schultz and his catch phrase "I know nothing."

Chloe was Hogan's Heroes. Her world was darker than anyone might have imagined. She evened it out with Chase and Angela, Ross and his family, Bill and Karen, Edgar, Milo (on occasion), and Jack... Whatever innocence she might have been able to grasp on to she had hidden away. Replaced by sarcasm and biting wit or annoyance...

Biting sarcasm and annoyed wit. And yet they still refused to stay away from her. There were days when she really didn't understand people. When she wanted to be alone they would be there... When she didn't want to be alone, they were there.

Chase knew her moods. Bill and Karen seemed to know the underlying meaning of her biting comments. Edgar seemed oblivious to the way she acted, no matter what she said. Milo was just... Milo. Jack was learning, or so Chase told her one night back in November when the two of them had had a few beers...she was pretty sure he was drunk, but then he'd walked in a straight line perfectly...

How had it gotten to such a large group? It had used to be her, Chase and Ross...or as Larry had called them back in DC Hawkeye, Trapper and BJ. He'd, of course, been referring to the TV show, but it worked perfectly. Chase was Trapper, Ross was BJ, both had kids...both characters had wives too, but in Chase's case they ignored that. Chloe had been Hawkeye. Why? Because unlike the others, Alan Alda's character had only had his dad...in some episodes a mom or a sister, but the constant was his dad. Chloe only had her parents...

She shook her head and hit the desk with her hand, missing the keyboard intentionally.

This was reality. Not some television program. And thinking of the past wasn't going to get her moving forward to finding those men...

Her attention returned to the screen and monitors above her. There was something about the picture that bothered her. Something about one of the men in the photograph but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Maggie Kessler's car pulled up outside the headquarters of the Counter Terrorism Unit in Los Angeles. It was guarded, but using her father's ID card with she got passed the automated security locks. The next step she figured would be a piece of cake. She knew most of the guards. That coupled with her father's ID...

She approached the first check point, and passed it without problem. It occurred to her in a passing thought that one would think the _Counter Terrorism_ Unit would have better security, but she was not about to argue.

She made it passed the second check point. The guard was absent from his station. She could see the busy floor ahead of her. She was nearly there, a few feet away from exiting the corridor when she heard someone yell after her.

"Hey you!"

She stopped in her tracks, looking like a doe trapped in headlights. She didn't turn around. Instead, Maggie went with her instinct. She started to run. In retrospect this was a bad decision. She heard two sets of footsteps chasing after her as she pushed passed a group of people who were coming in the opposite direction.

She was almost there. A few more steps and she'd be out of the corridor and on the floor where someone could vouch for her.

She felt something pull against her shoulder, just having exited the corridor, she was pulled backwards.

"NO!" she started to flail around. The two guards had a secure hold on her. "Let me go!"

"How did this happen?" It was a supervisor. She was sure of it.

"She used an ID badge belonging to Ross Kessler."

"The agent who was killed today." She ignored the way he spoke about her father.

The guard simply nodded. Maggie knew this wasn't going to be good...

"Listen to me!" she tried to pull away again. "I'm his-"

"She has his ID card, she must have been involved. Take her to holding."

"No! I'm his daughter! I need to talk to Chloe O'Brian. It's important!" Her cries fell upon deaf ears and she tried to attract as much attention as she could. "LET ME GO!" She yelled, kicked, screamed and succeeded, but no one bothered to inquire about what had happened... All except one.

The search had turned up seventeen individuals in seventeen different government agencies who had the same badge number as the search criteria. But only one which fit the type of badge... It was one of theirs. Of all the federal agencies in the country it just _had_ to be another CTU agent...

Edgar read the information on his screen and his eyes widened. He grabbed the telephone next to his computer.

"Mister Buchanan, I got it. Sending it up to you now."

After clicking a few buttons Edgar saw something out of the corner of his eye. The guards had someone in their... 'Wait a second...'

He got up from his station and walked to the corridor. The guards were dragging a redheaded girl down the hallway; she was putting up quite a struggle.

"Hey, fellas," the guards stopped, dragging the girl along with them. It was then that he was sure. "Hey, guys, she's with me."

They looked at him puzzled for a second, but if someone inside CTU had vouched for her. Apparently it was enough for the supervisor, he gave the nod and they let the girl go.

He walked over and looked at her. "I recognize you. Ross' daughter, right? Been a while since you've been around."

If anything Maggie could say that this guy...what was his name? Eddie? Edmund? No Edgar... Well he had good timing... or maybe not.

It was then that all hell broke loose...

Chloe was still in Tech 1 when the information popped up on her screen. She read the name over several times before her voice came back to her.

"Oh my god..."

"Chloe? What is it?"

She'd forgotten she was still on the phone with Jack.

"Jack, it's Chandler. It's Nathan Chandler." Her mind was reeling from this new information.

"Wait, slow down. Who is?"

"The agent from the van! It's Nathan!" She'd stood up and backed up from the screen a bit. This was not happening... not now. Not another one.

"Chloe..." he didn't like the way she sounded right now. Something about this was frightening her, Jack could tell. "Chlo' what is it?"

She punched in the access code and walked as quickly as she could out of Tech 1. She clearly wasn't getting it across to him... Was she not being clear enough?

"First Ross, then Nathan getting hurt... This can't be a coincidence!" She was rushing onto the floor. It was making more sense now. She couldn't figure out why she hadn't caught it sooner... somewhere she knew that there hadn't been enough information to go on. She didn't even hear Jack's response. She tried to calm herself down now. Panicking...what good would that do. "That's why the picture... My god, that must have been him."

Walking onto the floor she saw Edgar standing with a redhead but didn't even acknowledge them. Her only thoughts being on this revelation. She made her way towards Medical. She knew he was in surgery now. She barely remembered that she was holding the phone to her ear. As she walked she passed one of the off-duty medical staff walking by.

"Tabby, I'm heading over to see the guy who just came-"

"He's still on the table."

"Thanks."

"CHLOE!" Jack's voice finally cut through her thoughts.

When she finally brought herself to speak, her voice was less than a whisper. "I've got to see him, this is-"

And then all hell broke loose...

There was an explosion and the line got disconnected. Everything went by so fast that Chloe didn't even know what was happening.

She heard people screaming for help. She was on automatic.

She couldn't get inside, it would be too dangerous, even for her. She grabbed one of the emergency fire extinguishers from the wall, starting to put out the fire, trying to get to the people screaming inside. There were some EMTs on her tail. She didn't stop to think about who had called them.

Suddenly she felt something press over her mouth and nose.

"Just breathe normally."

She tried to get away but the person held her tightly. She tried not to, but she soon had no choice but to breathe. The cellular phone slipped from her fingers, landing on the floor and all she knew was black.


	7. Chapter 7

Extrapolation  
Chapter 7

"Well I'm sorry Timmy, but I couldn't just not-"

"You could have taken the time to tell me before you ran off! And don't call me Timmy!"

Chase had been on the phone with his "boss" for the better part of an hour now and he was pissed. He was about to hang up on the prick when his cellular phone rang.

'Thank you!' "Look, Tim, I have to go."

"We're not done here, Edmunds!"

"Yes. We are." Chase slammed the telephone back in its cradle and answered his cell. "Edmunds."

"Chase, it's Bill."

Chase walked into the living room where his daughter was playing with some blocks. He sat down on the couch, ruffling Angela's hair affectionately.

"Hey Bill. I have to thank you, your call gave me a reason to hang up the call to the office...I may be needing my job out here back," he said with a small smile.

"That can be discussed later, but I'm afraid this isn't a social call, Chase." There was something in Bill's voice which meant this wasn't going to be good news... Chase knew it.

"What happened?"

There was a moment of hesitation on the other end of the line before Bill spoke.

"Chase, does the name Nathan Chandler mean anything to you?"

"Na...Nathan Chandler?" Chase froze, his face going pale.

Angela seemed to notice a change. She looked up at her father asking, "You okay, Daddy?"

Chase pulled the phone aside for a second, "Yeah, I'm fine sweetie. Bill," he returned to the conversation with his former boss, "Angela and I are coming in." He didn't give any other explanation.

"Alrig-" in the background there was a loud noise and the sound of alarms going off. "I have to go." And the line went dead.

Chase didn't' like the sound of that. He didn't like it at all...

He stooped down so he was eye to eye with his daughter and put a smile on his face, a smile to cover his worry. "Hey there, you."

"Hi Daddy."

"Hey, tell ya what. Why don't we pack up some of your coloring books, we're going back to see Grampa Bill."

Angie smiled broadly and ran to the table to gather her crayons and books.

Chase Edmunds walked onto the floor of CTU Los Angeles so quickly that his daughter had to run to keep up with him. He sat her down at one of the empty desks, told her in his serious father voice to stay put, and walked straight to Bill Buchanan who was standing by one of the stations on the floor.

"Where's Nathan?"

Ever since he's heard the words 'Nathan Chandler'... That name had caught Chase completely off guard. For the man to turn up here and now... It didn't make sense. But something in the back of his mind was telling him that this was bad. Very, very bad.

Bill looked over his shoulder before straightening himself and looking at the younger man.

"He's dead. There was an explosion in surgery. From what we can gather there was a bomb on him...one that we couldn't detect," his tone was a somber one. Two agents in one day... two of his kids gone, and one wasn't even one of his. "What can you tell me about Chandler? Half of his file has been classified."

Chase's eyes widened as the news hit him. "He's dead? Oh... This is not good. First Ross, then Nate... Please tell me this is a coincidence."

"You are the second person to use that phrase in the past hour," a new voice broke into the conversation. Bill and Chase turned to see Jack walking towards them, Marcus trailing behind. Jack had a look of concern and worry on his face...he hid it well enough, but Bill and Chase could tell. "Now can someone tell me what the hell is going on?"

"The second..." Chase's eyes widened as this information set in. He wasn't the only one who'd come to this conclusion? "...oh my god." He looked around, the pieces starting to come together in his mind. "Where's Chloe?"

"What?" Buchanan was a bit put off by this sudden change of topic. "Chase, what does this have to do with-"

"Just answer the question," he snapped. His tone was sharp and he took a moment and a breath before continuing, trying to keep his nerves from creeping into his words. "It's important."

The urgency in voice his was enough to tell both Jack and Bill that there was trouble afoot.

"I was talking to her earlier," Jack supplied, "but the call was dropped. She wasn't making sense..."

Chloe has a tendency to ramble...at times...on occasion, but Jack had heard the fear in her voice. It hadn't taken much convincing to get Marcus into the van and back to CTU...lucky for the Bostonian too, because after hearing what he did, Jack wasn't about to take no for an answer.

"I saw her," from behind the men came another voice.

"Where?" Chase turned around and found himself face to face with Edgar and - "Maggie?"

She gave him a weak smile, "Hi Uncle Chase." Anything else she was about to say was cut off as Chase walked forward and wrapped her in a hug.

There was a moment of pause as he held his 'niece'. He had only seen her a few times since his transfer to New York. Every time he'd come in to town he made it a point to stop in. With everything that had happened today... after all of this, he hadn't had a chance to do much of anything.

Chase pulled back from the hug, getting back to business right away. "Where was she?"

"After that explosion she came in here then took off that way..."

Chase's eyes moved to the hallway Maggie was pointing: towards Medical. He didn't wait for anyone as he dashed off.

The blast had originated in the surgical area. Although there had been an explosion, the damage to CTU itself was minor; in fact there was practically none at all... outside the surgery room. This was one of the few places in the building that was self-contained. The reason stemmed from the need to keep the room sterile.

Chase's run left him standing outside the now-secured wreck of what used to be an operating room. On the floor, lying on its side was a fire extinguisher, and right next to that - Chloe's cell phone.

He stooped down and stared at the small device in the palm of his hand. Even if she'd wanted to be left alone, Chloe O'Brian would never have just left her cellular phone like this. She might have turned it off, or even removed the battery, but her time at CTU had taught her that it was a bad idea to not have it.

He was startled when the phone started to vibrate and ring. The screen flashed with the words 'Jack cell'. He pressed the button and was met with a worried voice.

"Chloe wh-"

"She doesn't have her phone with her," he said bringing the phone to his ear as he surveyed the scene. He caught sight of a piece of cloth lying by the fire extinguisher. The phone still in his hand, but forgotten, he picked it up and examined it. It smelled like... "...chloroform..."

Chase heard footsteps approaching him. Fast. Jack was running, Bill was trailing behind him at a fast walk. Chase looked lost as he slowly rose to his feet. He was dazed, but upon hearing Bill ask what was going on he snapped back. He needed information. Now.

"Bill, I need you to ask Maggie to keep an eye on Angie."

Bill was puzzled by this. Chase's eyes had taken on a dark determined or serious tint, one that not only worried him, but Jack as well. "Chase, why can't you tell her yourself?"

Chase didn't answer his question... not directly anyway. He looked his former boss square in the eyes as he spoke. "I don't work here anymore, but I need you to trust me. I need access to a workstation, all files dealing with the Barrenger take down and any files on Nathan and Ross."

"Chase," Jack's voice had lowered to a tone that was dead serious, "what's going on."

His friend took a moment before speaking. He shut his eyes. In his heart he could feel that this was bad, Chase had been blocking it from his face, but he knew that Jack could see through that mask.

"I need to check some things before I'm sure. And I'm not taking any chances... Just pray that I'm wrong about this, Jack."

It was sharp and insistent and cut through her body like a knife. She couldn't tell which way was up. She could hear noises...voices? 

She tried to concentrate, to focus on the sound but found she couldn't. She was spinning... She couldn't move, couldn't think.

She tried to work her mind...what was happening? She felt the bile rising in her throat. The two noises...voices... People?

Fleeting thoughts, a partial idea, questions. She couldn't hold onto them. What did they want?

Her head was swimming, the pain was constant and she tried to control her breathing. She tried to exert some control, to keep still, stay out of notice...

Sounds... Something betrayed her. The pain was worse, cutting her to her core.

Then nothing.

He didn't understand how the files were missing. He'd been searching, but key pieces were not simply misplaces. They'd been deleted, and by the date, some time ago at that. He'd been at his wits end when Maggie pulled up a chair and sat down, telling him about the break in, the missing folder and the photos on her phone. She'd shown him the list and the pieces fell into place...except that most of the agent files had been altered... 

Chase stood at the head of the conference table as the others watched, waiting for him to start. He was gathering his thoughts. The threat was real. He was so stupid! How had they missed this!? Wasn't someone supposed to be tracking these things? He looked through the glass door to where his daughter and Maggie were sitting. They were close enough that he could see what Angela was coloring but far enough away that she wouldn't hear anything.

He took a breath, and steeled himself against the multitude of emotion running rampant in his head. It was time to start.

"For those of you who don't know me, my name is Chase Edmunds." He looked around the table. Everyone was there: Jack, Bill, Edgar, Milo, Marcus, members of the floor staff. There were a few faces around table he didn't recognize.

Chase let out a breath and clicked some buttons on the control panel on the table, dimming the lights and turning on the projector.

"Ross Kessler." Chase clicked a button and Ross' picture appeared on the screen. He clicked it again and a photo of a second man appeared. "Nathan Chandler."

"As you all know, until his death earlier today, Ross Kessler was CTU LA's head of tac team operations. However to most of you, the name Nathan Chandler is unknown."

He clicked a button and changed the slide to show Nathan's file, the parts that were accessible.

"Nathan Chandler, age 38. Agent out of CTU New York. As you can see, as of five months ago he was assigned to an undercover operation, infiltrating a terrorist cell based in New Rochelle. Two months into the operation we lost all contact with Nathan, and two months after that the higher ups changed his status from missing in action to presumed dead. The last time anyone back in at New York CTU heard from him was a coded message. I decoded it. All it said that he was making headway. That's the last a heard from him until he was discovered in that van."

He pressed the button yet again, bringing up a chart.

"Two agents dead. Seemingly unrelated. That is, unless you know what you're looking for," he paused before explaining. "Six years ago agents from CTU offices in LA, Boston, New York, New Orleans, Chicago, Denver and San Francisco took part in an operation to break up a network of terrorist cells. Each office assigned agents to take point; they were in charge of the operation and were ultimately responsible for coordinating the takedown."

He cleared his throat, clicking the button again; more pictures were added to the chart on the projector.

"The files are missing, but thanks to some precautions taken by one of our agents, I was able to find and cross reference all the point people. There were a total of sixteen agents listed in the official report. I would have been the seventeenth but because of Angie, Chloe insisted my name be left out." He looked around the table as fourteen more photographs were added to the screen.

"These are the faces of the sixteen agents at the heart of the operation, referred to as the Barringer Takedown: Dorothy Lewis, Marsha Hale, Donald Hayes, Tom Browning, Mavis Kinning, Anthony Hart, Debbie Norton, Alice Seever, Logan Wells, Lyle Exley, Rachel Young, Brian Persel, Jamie Tanner, Nathan Chandler, Ross Kessler and Chloe O'Brian.

"I've checked the files and ever since the successful end of the operation, members of the point team have been dying. The cause has never shown to be anything suspicious, but the files have clearly been altered. The deaths were carried out over a number of years; if my suspicions are correct, this was done in order to stave off any unwanted attention. And the only solid connection between these agents was their involvement in the Barringer Takedown... There had been three agents still alive, but now, with Ross and Nathan's deaths, fifteen of the original sixteen agents have died or disappeared."

Chase looked around the table. He wanted nothing more than to sit down and bury his head in his hands. How could he have missed this?! One look at Jack told Chase that he knew what he was about to say.

"Chloe's the only one left..."


	8. Chapter 8

Extrapolation  
Chapter 8

"Jack put me down!"

"Sorry, can't. Chase's orders. You're not allowed to walk until that leg is healed." Jack Bauer's face held a smirk, one which only confirmed her suspicions. He wasn't sorry; in fact he seemed to be enjoying this...maybe even a bit too much.

"That doesn't mean that I can't get around on my own. I have crutches."

"Yeah, but this is just a bit more interesting."

She frowned at him. "I'm going to kill that man."

"You wouldn't do that, Darlin'." She'd forgotten Chase was only a few steps away

"Oh wouldn't I?" She raised an eyebrow as if she were daring him.

Jack placed her down on the picnic blanket, sitting down next to her as Mary, Angela and Tracey ran after one another. They weren't looking where they were going and plowed into something. Their eyes went wide as they realized what, or rather, who it was: Maggie and her boyfriend Frank had been making out on the other side of the large tree the girls were running around under. The couple had toppled over along with the two four-year olds and Tracy and the three runners got up in a hurry... but not quickly enough.

"Oh that's it!" Maggie got up, running after her sisters and Angela, tackling them to the ground, laughing along with them.

The adults looked on from the blanket, Ross and Ellen on the left, Chase in the middle and Jack and Chloe lying down on the right.

"Look at them," Chloe murmured, sitting up and stretching. "They haven't a care in the world... not today anyway."

"Hey, it's your day off, Chloe," Ross called from his side of the blanket. "Stop with the down commentary. This is supposed to be fun," he laughed and stood up, bringing Ellen with him as he joined his girls, Angela and Frank (who'd decided to join) in a game of tag; they were joined shortly thereafter by Chase...whom Angela literally dragged into the game.

Chloe shook her head as she watched the group. "Oh yeah. Uh huh, that's right. Run around like a bunch of chickens with your heads cut off. Point out the injury of the cranky person," she said this in an irritated tone, but her face told a very different story. She was grinning and soon couldn't help but let out a chuckle. She turned to Jack, who surprisingly hadn't gotten up to join them and said, "Well?"

His face was one of pure innocence...too innocent. "What? Well what?"

"Well aren't you going to go and run around and play with the other children?" she said this loud enough so the others could hear it and was rewarded by Chase sticking his tongue out at her and blowing a raspberry at her as they started tossing a frisbee around.

She couldn't help but laugh.

Jack watched and shook his head, amused. "Umm... nah, I think I'll stay right here." She shot a look at him that said she wasn't buying it. "What? I mean, someone's got to keep an eye on you, you get into more trouble than anyone I know, Chloe O'Brian," he said to her in a lower voice, then winking at her.

She let an amused smirk cross her features. "So, you're doing this for _my_ benefit, then?" She still wasn't buying it.

"Maybe... or maybe I just like the company," he said casually. "It's not a crime."

Chloe looked at him skeptically. "If it were a crime, you'd be face down with handcuffs on you waiting for the authorities. Field agent, remember?"

Jack saw her skeptical look and raised her a raised eyebrow. "A field agent with a broken leg, no less."

"Oh yeah, sure keep going. Go ahead pick on me."

Jack turned on his side, propping himself up with his elbow, looking down at her as she remained lying on the blanket. "Well what if I do? You clearly can't catch me if I run away."

"Just wait until my leg heals, then you'll get it," she said quietly.

Jack leaned in a little. "What was that? I didn't quite hear you," he was smirking again.

"That look says otherwise," she countered, looking to the side where the others were still running around.

He leaned in to her a little bit more, moving her chin so she was looking at him. Brushing his thumb across her cheek he spoke at a whisper. "Well now, you can't hear what I'm not saying either." Before Chloe knew what was happening...

She cried out as she felt it. Like sparks shooting off. And she couldn't keep herself in that place anymore. The clouds became walls and she bit her lip to keep from crying out...

He'd almost kissed her that day... Sure he'd pulled it off as a joke, laughed about it when he'd let go of her chin when the frisbee hit him. Acted like nothing had happened, but it had crossed his mind. He could have kicked himself for it. He would have betrayed their friendship... He would have betrayed Teri... Right?

Jack stared at the wall. Lying on his side like this with his back to the door, he was trying to get the tri-tone ring of the telephone out of his ear. The sound was neutral yet eerily haunting. It stayed with you, even if you didn't realize it, it would still stay with you... Kind of like the thought that were going through his head.

In the middle of this crisis, Jack had been approached by Bill Buchanan and told to get some sleep in the crib. The crib was a room with beds, where agents could rest without going home; it was deep in the sub-basement - Away from the floor. Jack didn't understand the logic in this. Not only had Jack been in the middle of a lead, but they had an agent missing. Jack's opposition found itself against an ultimatum: Either he could rest in the crib or the holding cell of his choosing. It was rare that Bill Buchanan employed these tactics, but when he did it was in your best interest not to argue. Jack begrudgingly chose the bed over a bench, standing and walking to the stairs

Sleep was very unlikely at this point.

How could he when...

He turned over, now lying on his other side, he found himself staring at the door. A ghost of a smile appeared as he remembered it.

He could still see her there. Standing there, facing the door, screaming at it that she was fine and didn't need an afternoon nap, that she wasn't in kindergarten. This after Bill had ordered Chloe and himself down to the crib for some shut eye...in retrospect he realized they probably both needed the rest, but Chloe felt fine... she was always like that. Fiery, argumentative, always pushing her limits...

Right now, he could only think of how he wanted her to be there, standing right there, screaming at the door. He wanted her here. Somewhere nearby.

He didn't want to sleep. There was something missing he could feel it. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed with his head in his hands.

She'd been right there. He'd been talking to her and then he'd lost her. Again! It had only been a few hours since she disappeared...right? Hours, days? He pulled his cellular phone out of his pocket and checked. It had only been hours.

Kimberly Bauer's cellular phone was set to ring 'Tradition' from Fiddler on the Roof when her father called, 'Help' by the Beatles when it was the office and the theme to 'Fraggle Rock' when it was one of her friends. And right now, the theme to the show with those adorable puppets was sounding from her pocket.

"Funny, I didn't know that we got cell reception down here..."

Kim Bauer looked over at her companion with a small laugh. "Think about where we are, Chris. This is a congressional office building. If our Blackberries didn't get a signal and the members needed us, the world as we know it would blow up," she laughed, putting her hand over his.

At age 22, Kimberly Teresa Bauer was working as a Legislative Assistant in the office of Congressman Ethan Crosby of California (D). After working for the campaign this had been her reward, a paid staff position in the House of Representatives. And it just so happened that among her assigned issues was that of national security.

Kim pulled out her cell phone and held it, staring at her lunch tray for a moment. She hadn't even noticed her companion leave the table and come back. He looked over her shoulder, planting a kiss on her cheek.

"Chris, we're in public," she laughed.

"So?"

"So? Wait till after work you screwball," she said playfully batting him away.

Christopher Thompson, Chris to his friends, was a staffer in the office of Nebraska Congresswoman Tiffany Pines. Kim had been introduced to him at a function to welcome the new staffers to Capitol Hill. That had been several months ago. The two were now dating and sharing an apartment with three other staffers, two from her office and one from his.

"Well, are you going to answer it, or are you going to let it ring all day?" he asked backing away from her swats.

Kim sent a mock frown his way, before laughing, as she answered the phone.

"This is Kim Bauer."

"Kim?"

Kim heard the voice and froze. It wasn't so much the voice itself that caused this, it was the way the person was talking. "Maggie?"

"Yeah, hi," the voice said weakly.

The two girls had stayed in contact after Kim had left for college. They'd decided to and had made a Facebook group for the children of CTU employees from around the country. They'd called it 'CTU Brats.' The group was strictly invitation only, with the list of names coming directly from CTU's division offices. They viewed it as a support structure for the families, and as such had signed off on the idea. With Jack's help, the two girls had ensured a level of security not found on any other group on the system. Its description read "Like army brats, but different" which was exactly what they were.

Kim waved her boyfriend off and stood up, walking to a somewhat more secluded area of the Longworth cafeteria over by the iced tea dispensers.

"Maggie, I can hear it in your voice. Something happened." She didn't even take the time to say hello. They'd always learned that when something happened it wasn't necessarily the time to deal with pleasantries. And she could tell that something had definitely happened. "What's wrong?"

The crib was silent until the phone in his hand startled him. Jack hadn't noticed how quiet it was down there until the sound cut in.

He flipped open his phone and brought it up to his ear. He didn't even give his usual phone greeting...

"Yeah?"

"Dad?"

He froze as he heard her voice.

"Kimmy..." The words left his mouth as a murmur and she knew that Maggie was right: This wasn't good. Her father knew how much she disliked the nickname...he'd used it when she was younger but she'd grown out of it.

"Yeah Dad, it's me."

Jack let out a breath that he didn't realize he'd been holding.

"Sweetheart, you have no idea how good it is to hear your voice." After all that had happened his mind suddenly jumped and his tone became a bit more worried. "I didn't forget to pick you up at the airport, did I?"

Kim could tell from this that he was not himself at the moment. Her father was a grade-a computer hacker and although he had his moments he was usually right on point. 

"No, Dad. I'm in Washington. You haven't forgotten anything," she assured him in a gentle tone.

There was a pause here. A rather long one. Kim knew she would have to say something if he didn't speak soon. From what Maggie had told her, her father had taken the news badly.

"So, how is life in the nation's capital? Hear that you've got some bills on the floor right now."

Well he'd spoken... it wasn't the direction that Kim had hoped the conversation would take, but she knew it was a start.

"Well you know," she said, a small smile, sitting down on her bed, "national security stuff. We've had several Appropriations Committee meetings this week, and lots of constituent calls that our interns have been dealing with," she added casually. "But nothing too interesting."

"I beg to differ, my little girl is grown up and on the road to ruling the world," he said with a small shake of his head. "I'd say that is pretty interesting."

Kim couldn't help it, she let out a small laugh. Her father, who'd worked at CTU for so many years, was saying that her job as a paper pusher was interesting. Something about that struck her as a bit absurd, but it was just his way.

"You know," she commented, "sometimes I wonder if you would find it so interesting if I weren't your daughter."

"Well, we both know that that doesn't matter. I am interested and you are my daughter. The facts fit together well. Sometimes it's better not to question them, Kim."

The facts… Kim thought about it and wondered how many of the facts he just didn't see...now wasn't the time for that. There was a short lapse of silence. The sound of breathing was all that was heard and finally Kim couldn't take it anymore.

"Dad, are you alright?"

On the other end of the line, the words caused Jack to focus in a little. "Wha-?"

Kim bit her lip and took a breath. She hated to get into this. From the way he was acting she could clearly see how Chloe was affecting him, more than he'd probably admit.

"I talked to Maggie...I heard about what happened. I heard about Chloe."

With that the silence got worse.

"Dad?" He didn't answer. She didn't like this. After a moment she tried again. "Dad!?"

She heard him take in a breath and could imagine him holding his head in his free hand or lifting his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"We've had a bad day, Kim... a _really_ bad day," he began. He hated to tell her about work. She didn't need this sort of thing in her life. But her response was one he didn't expect.

"I know."

"How-"

Cutting him off she replied, "I talked to Maggie, she told me everything." 

His mind suddenly jumped once again, realizing what this meant, "She told you about-"

"Calm down, Dad. It's just a conversation between two friends. It's not any kind of internal security leak," she said, trying to get him to relax a bit. He was clearly on edge.

Her father took several breaths and closed his eyes again. "We have three people dead or missing. And I don't know if we're going to find her. I've ran all the files I can find and they're gone. The files are gone. I want to be out there looking for her, but Bill won't let me leave the building," Jack had forgotten who he was talking to. Suddenly he remembered and tried to pull back from what he was saying. He couldn't tell her this! "But he's the boss..."

On her end of the line, Kim frowned. He still thought of her as a child. Kim knew he wouldn't ever tell her everything. What parent told their child all of the gritty details? His mindset was that of a father, and even though he trusted her, it was the job of the parent to protect their child.

There were days that Kim got frustrated at the limitations of this parent-child dynamic. One moment he'd be calling her an adult, telling her that she was grown up, the next he'd be trying to ground her. It seemed to elude his comprehension that she hadn't been "a child" for six years; her mother's death had caused her to leave her childhood fantasies and her teenaged rebellions behind. It was something that brought a unique perspective to both of their lives. She'd begun getting to know her father all over again and learned that there were certain things -- even with all of Jack's training in information, the tasks that demanded his awareness and keen eye for detail -- there were certain things that her father was blind to.

"Has there been any information?" she asked.

"No... None. There is no trail… or anything at all. I've been over the camera feeds six times. I was on my seventh when Bill told me to lie down. Kim, I don't need to lie down, I need to go look for her." 

"Dad, its Chloe. I have every confidence that you guys will find her. She's a survivor. She rescues people like me for a living. She's made of tougher stuff."

Chloe had been the one who'd rescued Kim when she and Teri had been in danger. The two had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Chloe had been assigned to get Kim out of there, another agent had been assigned to Teri... Teri hadn't made it out alive. Chloe had left Kim to run back inside to help, but there was nothing she could do... That night Kim and Chloe had formed an understanding, a friendship of sorts.

She knew her words probably weren't helping her father cope with this loss, but she had to try.

"I can't tell you all the details, Kimmy, but this time..."

Kim interrupted him. She knew he was scared. What was so clear to her and to everyone else, he had yet to admit to himself.. She didn't want to be so blunt about it, but what else was there to do? She finished his sentence. "This time, when she gets back, you have to tell her."

There was a lapse before he questioned, "...what?"

Kim had to tell him. She wished she could be there to give her father a hug right when she said it. "You need to tell her how you feel, Dad."

"Suddenly you're starting to sound like a shrink..." Had she been in the room with him, Kim was certain he'd be scrutinizing her in uncertainty.

Her voice became a bit more serious as she continued. "I mean it. Dad, I've seen the two of you. I've seen how you act together. The way you act when she's around."

"I don't know what you mean Kim. She's my friend, one of my best friends." Jack didn't know why he was talking about this with his daughter. His daughter of all people. "We're close, how do you expect us to act?" There was a ever-so-slight edge to his tone, one that, without actually saying it, conveyed his feelings about the appropriateness of the conversation.

Kim had tried to hint at this topic before and each time she'd either lose her nerve or the topic would be changed as he cut her off. It never failed; every time she brought something like this up any one of the twenty-five million interruptions she'd documented thus far seemed to come up. But her father's current state, as Maggie had described it to her, proved to her that this needed to be dealt with.

"Mom once told me that if something needs to be said, it shouldn't matter who says it," Kim hoped this would work…she was not entirely certain that the best way to do it. She knew bringing up her mother would focus him, and she needed that, but was it what she wanted him to focus on right now?

"Well, your mother was a very wise woman," he sighed. "She always knew what to say..."

Kim smiled a little bit at the thought, "Yeah, she did...and now it's my turn." She took a breath before trying again. "I know that it's difficult for you, Dad. I can only imagine how confusing this must be."

She took his silence was a sign that she should continue.

"I know you, Dad. I know how hard it has been for you since Mom died; I know that the last thing you do every night is slip your ring off and put it on your nightstand and the first thing you do in the morning is to slip it back on...but its meaning, it's-it's changed. I've seen how you act around her."

She bit her lip for a moment as she kept speaking. "I've seen the way your eyes light up when you're talking to her. I've seen it all, Dad."

"Kim, there's-"

"I know you love Mom," she cut him off before he could try and use one of those numerous interruptions. "I know that that won't change, but she would want you to be happy. She always wanted you to be happy. And…and so do I."

Silence loomed for several moments, Jack unsure how to reply, until finally the words left his mouth, however hesitantly.

"Thank you, sweetheart, but-"

"You don't have to say anything, Dad, just...well, just keep it in mind. Just think about it. That's all."

His nod, a motion which she could not hear over the line, was coupled with a short 'Okay' which he repeated twice. His mind was still reeling from the conversation, but part of him couldn't help but wonder just how much truth was held in her words...

There was chatter. There was always chatter. Talking to someone, talking to her. She thought it was talking, sometimes she could make out phrases but the voices were often so muffled she couldn't even do that. Her head, body...everything hurt. They'd blindfolded her and lay her on a floor somewhere. It wasn't too cold, if she wasn't imagining this she might have been laying on some kind of mat...but the feel changed with her focus.

"She's mumbling again. Get her quiet."

She heard footsteps level with her and walk past her head. There was a sharp pain in her legs. What had been done she did not know. She felt like she wanted to throw up but had not the energy.

Her hair was grabbed and her head lifted. She felt something cool pass through her lips. Water...she hoped. She'd tried to fight this action before. They'd forced the liquid down her throat and she'd nearly choked.

The man let go of her and pushed her head down with just enough force to keep any damage from being done when it hit the floor... It felt like a floor now...

She bit down a sound which tried to escape her mouth and knew now more than ever that even with their garbled chatter it was too quiet. She missed the voice.

She always had his voice in her ear. He'd be guiding her around the site. Like a guardian angel, an eye in the sky...the clichéd nicknames could go on and on and would have had she not had a pain shooting from her head downward. He had the answers when she didn't. She trusted him to get her out of anything, with her life.

The room started to tilt, from what she could feel it was.

She could almost swear that she heard his voice. In her head it made sense and she heard herself talking to him, she didn't know what she was saying. She felt a sharp pain in her torso and tried to ask him for help; anything that he knew that would get her out of here. But he wasn't responding to her. She could hear him but he couldn't hear her.

She felt the pain get worse and felt something pulling against her neck, cutting tightly into her skin as the chain snapped. She didn't know if she cried out. The water they'd given her wouldn't stay down and she couldn't move. The voices and noise were gone and she was alone in the eerie still room.


	9. Chapter 9

Extrapolation  
Chapter 9

She remembered hearing birds. And she remembered noises, like people moving things. But she could never get her bearings. Every way was up and no way seemed to get her to her feet.

Feeling hands on her arms, she tried to struggle, but they were much stronger.

"You've lasted, but this is goodbye." Or had they said: "You're wasted, time to skydive"? It was tricky. She didn't want to go skydiving...

She felt something stick her and then a white hot flash of pain which didn't go away. She didn't know if she screamed. She may have, but after a minute it wouldn't matter... It was done...

If the saying was true and time flew by when you were having fun, then the past three days proved that the opposite was also true. Time fell to a crawl when you were waiting for something...or searching for someone.

After countless hours of searching with satellites and on foot, the staff of CTU had turned up nothing. Although no one had said anything specifically (especially not to those who knew her the best) there were questions among some of the staff with lower clearance as to if this was an efficient use of time. The murmurings of these individuals were ignored and the search continued.

Today was the third day. And they were no closer. No leads had panned out. Nothing.

Milo had taken it upon himself to compile all the information in the database into another file. It was a hard copy and there were too many gaps to name. The folder was sitting in front of Chase as he sat in the briefing room. It had everything from the events surrounding the Barringer takedown till now.

Chase had sent Angela home with Maggie that first night and the little girl had stayed with the Kesslers for two days; the family in mourning had understood that it was an emergency and Ellen had practically ordered him to send her to them. He'd been up for two days before he was ordered by Bill down into the dungeon (as he called the crib) for some rest. Edgar had commented that he'd never seen so much traffic to and from the sub-basement before. It seemed that almost everyone was refusing to give up on this...except those interns who didn't know anything anyway.

Chase looked up from the file and saw Angela sitting by Field Ops. She was a smart kid, he'd always said it. She knew something was wrong, and that her Mama C was in trouble. She'd found a photo album in her travels and had been carrying around her favorite photo ever since. She'd heard the banter of the interns; they tended to speak freely around her. And when they did she'd whip out the photo and stick it in their faces with a glare that she could only have picked up from Chloe. The photo had been taken on one of their vacations. Chase had the same picture in his wallet. Right now the photo was sitting on the desktop next to the little girl as she pretended not to watch Jack and Edgar work on their joint search grid.

Chase knew she was more worried than she let on... She was trying to be brave, if Chloe had been here she would have said she was trying to emulate her daddy, but she wasn't and it went unspoken.

Chase stood and closed the door to the briefing room. The buzz of people and computers seemed to become more distant as he returned to the table. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to think of what else might help. Three days and the only lead had been a false hit on a credit card belonging to Vincent Turner. In this day and age one might think it impossible not to leave some sort of footprint, electronic or otherwise; some might say that it was impossible to not have some sort of record _somewhere_. If that were the case than the possible had been done...

Three days had been wasted on a wild goose chase and Division was not happy.

Turner had escaped during the chaos of the explosion, Chloe had been taken during the explosion... There were too many threads to this. Everything looked like it could be fit together like a puzzle, but they were missing the one piece that held all the others in place. His gut told him that they had to keep looking, but it had become increasingly clear that Division didn't see the same way he did.

Division wasn't worried about Chloe Agatha O'Brian. No. Their concern was that Turner was out there somewhere and the LA branch of CTU seemed to be chasing their tails.

They didn't care about the possibility that there was a connection to the Barringer Takedown, to them that operation was closed. It had been made very clear to Bill, and by proxy to Chase, that the resources being used to find Chloe were needed elsewhere. Four hours ago, Buchanan had been given a five hour deadline; after that the search would be ordered to stop. Bill had been able to negotiate it to six hours, but here they were with two hours left and still nothing...

If Chase had to say anything about this job, it was that working at CTU reinforced just how important a minute could be. And right now every second counted.

Thinking about it made it even harder to concentrate. And he needed to stay focused right now. Chloe was counting on them to find her. Chase knew that if she'd had the ability to she would have gotten them a message by now. If she'd escaped, at the very least she would have called someone here... That was a best case scenario, but he refused to think any thing ill had befallen her.

Chase had taken point on this operation. He didn't work in LA anymore, but he was an active agent and clearances transferred from one branch to the other...at least they did when someone cleared the proper paperwork; it had been the first thing Bill had done after giving him access to the system three days before.

Frustration and worry, he knew, wouldn't help the situation. Especially not right now.

They needed help...he needed help. And the best way to get it was to...

The telephone console on the table rang and he pressed a button.

"Edmunds."

"Chase, we've got everything set up and they should be online in a few minutes."

Chase pursed his lips and nodded. He was pretty sure that Milo could see him from the desk.

"Great. Thanks for the heads up."

The call was broken and he pushed the button again, turning the phone off.

They were ready.

CTU Division had strict rules about what different branch offices were able to discuss with one another. Usually these rules meant that information could be shared, but anything that might be sensitive had to be crosschecked and approved by Division.

But now, with the deadline drawing ever closer and a lack of leads, Chase was taking a risk. Division had made it very clear at the time he'd been captured that nothing pertaining to Vincent Turner was to be shared. Normally, Chase would have followed an order such as this, but today wasn't just any day...

Blatantly disregarding the order, he'd sent messages out and now came the results.

He pushed a button on the video conferencing equipment and watched as several other agents appeared on the view screen. He pulled out his cell phone and made two very quick calls; alerted that they were about to start, Bill, Jack and Edgar entered and took seats at the table.

Finally all invited parties were present and it was time to get started.

Chase knew all of these agents, but decided to start with introductions.

"Hi, my name is Chase Edmunds, CTU New York. I want to thank all of you for taking time to do this...Like I said in my message, it's not by the book, but its necessary." He turned to the side to look at Bill for a moment. "Right now I'm working out of CTU LA. To my left is Bill Buchanan, regional branch director, and Agent Marcus Collier, field specialist, I believe you and he are acquainted, Ms. Wessing; to my right, Jack Bauer and Edgar Stiles, senior analysts." Looking back at the screen he finished this tedious but necessary segment of the call. "Including myself and my three colleagues we have representatives from seven different branch offices on this call: From San Francisco, Walter Ultman; Roger Timmonds, New Orleans; Carla Wessing, Boston; Jimmy Dietrich, Chicago; and Saundra Quriers, Denver... I do hope I pronounced that correctly," it was pronounced 'criers.'

He took a breath before continuing to speak.

"As my message stated, time is of the essence. According to what files are still in the system, each of us were working with one of the 16 agents involved with the takedown just before they died or disappeared. O'Brian's now missing as well we've got no leads... Division put a cap on any outgoing information about the capture of Vincent Turner, but I'm breaking the order. They put us on a deadline before we have to cut off the search and we only have two hours left," he explained.

"When I got the message I checked the files we had here in the office, but you have to know, Chase, that most of them were lost when Katrina hit," Roger said, flipping through some papers. "All we have is what was in the database, but from my recollection, there wasn't anything unusual about Marsha's death...but all the files have been lost. Crime scene reports and the like," he sighed.

"Does anyone remember what they might have said?" Jack. "Someone following them? Weird messages? Feeling eyes watching them? Anything out of the ordinary."

Unfortunately it didn't look like it would be a very helpful conference call. They helped as best they could, but recollections weren't as sharp as they had been and the majority of the disappearances or deaths had taken place over two years ago. It was after everyone had spoken that Carla Wessing's facial expression changed slightly.

"You know... the last time I saw Logan, he mentioned that he'd gotten a call from an old friend of his." Until a few days ago, Logan Wells had been the last of the 16 Barringer agents to be reported missing. "Oh what was the name...? Jonathan? No... Nathan," she remembered. "Nathan something."

And suddenly something clicked into place. Everyone in the briefing room of CTU LA seemed to understand that this was significant.

Marcus was about to speak to his former colleague, but someone beat him to it.

"When?" Chase's voice held only a tinge of the urgency he was currently feeling inside.

"A couple of months ago. Four or five maybe," she said, thinking. "He didn't say what it was about, just said something about missing some... 'Fraid that I don't know what it means," she said with a small frown.

Logan Wells had been reported missing a month and a half after Nathan Chandler had gone undercover... this was exactly what they'd been looking for.

There were more questions asked, but no answers were found, she just didn't have them to give. The conversation was about to continue when Jimmy made a comment.

"Hey, from where I'm sitting it looks like you have a visitor, Edmunds."

Edgar and the rest turned to the side and saw a man opening the door. None of the agents had seen him before, with one exception.

Edgar stood up and tried to intercept the man. If he were with Division they didn't want him hearing the discussion and if he was lost...well they still didn't want him hearing this.

"I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid the room's busy."

"I can see that," the man said curtly. "But that's alright. I don't mind."

Edgar could see this man wasn't just some random new hire who'd gotten lost. He wore a visitor's badge, but the analyst had seen his face somewhere before. He just couldn't place it.

Chase checked his watch. He didn't have time for this.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Timothy Meyer, director, CTU NY," Chase made the introduction quickly, hoping that the man would disappear if he wished hard enough.

"Hope I'm not interrupting your conference call, Edmunds," he said, it didn't have a specific tone to it, but to all in the room it was clear that he'd done just that. "If you'll excuse me one moment," he spoke to the agents on the monitor, and turned to Bill Buchanan. "I want him on a plane to New York." He indicated Chase. "He didn't give warning before leaving his post and I haven't heard a word in three days. He's on assignment back in the City, I need him there."

"And a phone call wouldn't have sufficed to tell me this?" Bill was skeptical about this man at the moment. He'd submitted the paperwork to Division for the temporary transfer of Agent Chase Edmunds to CTU LA from CTU NY.

Tim frowned slightly. "I came to collect Chandler's body. Going to bring it back home for a proper burial," he replied.

"There's no body to collect," Jack said speaking up for the first time since the man had entered. "There was a bomb on him and it went off."

Tim was not pleased with this. He wasn't a bad man, but he liked things to be orderly, and this most certainly was not orderly. His agents back in New York were now amiss from their normal schedules. He needed Edmunds back now, and as such repeated his earlier comment. "I want him on the next possible flight back to the City. We need him back."

Bill was about to say that he'd filed the paperwork and that it must have not gotten all the way to New York yet when the telephone console near Chase started to ring.

Chase ignored the conversation going on behind him, as Tim refused to let up and pressed the button, letting the call come through.

"Edmunds."

"It's me. Checking in here... we haven't found anything yet any luck with-"

"Yeah we might have something..." Chase paused as he saw another call coming in. "Tony stay on the line."

The button was pressed and suddenly Milo's voice was coming out of it, not even waiting for a 'hello'.

"We've got something. Just got an email from an account traced to the library over on Fourth. Whoever sent it cleaned up their tracks, I can't get anything off the trace other than it was scheduled to be delivered today... It's GPS coordinates."

Chase momentarily froze. His eyes widening, then narrowing as he steeled himself. "Ladies, gentlemen, thank you for your time, have to cut this short now. We'll be in touch." Without any more delay he slammed the control to turn everything off and ran from the room with the others on his tail, Edgar making a b-line for Field Ops2.

Milo was one step ahead of the game and had started to work the coordinates down with the software, but it was going to take a few minutes. As Chase, Marcus, Bill, and Jack approached he indicated the screen, as if to tell them he was on it already and for them to go, he'd give the address to them the second it was done.

Bill turned to the three men and made a sudden decision. "Chase, Marcus, go," it was a short and sharp. "Jack I need you at Field Ops."

Jack didn't say anything but followed Edgar's example and ran to his station. He would normally have argued, hell he wanted to argue, but this could be it... What if this was what it took to get her home? She was a survivor, Kim had been right. He logged the system up and waited for Milo's information as Bill picked up the phone next to him, speaking briefly to the man waiting on the line.

Chase and Marcus headed for the parking lot, only to be stopped when Tim stepped directly in Chase's way.

"We're leaving," was all that the New York director said.

"No. You're leaving. Get out of my way," Chase practically snapped at the man. He was already at the end of his rope here...

"I said-"

"Forget it. Take the position and shove it! I quit! Now get out of my way!!" he practically shoved the man aside and the two field agents made for the SUV outside.

The New York director would be gone when they got back, and Chase would be looking for a new line of work, but none of that mattered. All he could think of was getting Chloe out of danger.

It hadn't been far. The lot was several miles away from CTU and although not an isolated spot, it was shielded along two sides by a chain link fence overgrown with weeds and ivy.

The tac teams had arrived at the same time as the two field agents, and Jack had gotten the satellite feed up. The reaction for all was the same...

On the ground, lying in a careless pile, were bodies.

There was a silence among those at the site and those watching the feed. Despite the sounds around them, their silence was practically deafening.

Chase kept telling himself that this wasn't happening, and nearly succeeded in convincing himself. It lasted only until the on-site team approached the bodies and, to his own horror, Chase found he recognized two of them. An EMT ran ahead to check for a pulse. There wasn't one...

It was the same for all of them. There were seven bodies. Internally he was shocked, especially as he recognized the other corpses. He found himself just staring. Saying nothing. It was the same back at CTU.

The EMTs brought out stretchers and started to load the bodies onto them. But something was wrong. As one of the medics, a man named Fletcher, removed the sixth body from the pile, he saw something underneath the seventh victim...something shiny, reflecting the light, being held by something.

Chase had made his way back to the SUV to let the EMTs do their job. Seven bodies... there had been sixteen altogether, and eight were accounted for. This meant that there was still one person who-

His thoughts were cut off as one of the medics called for assistance. They needed help to move the last body off of another...

He'd been walking towards them and just as suddenly he froze with a shiver that felt like ice rushing down his spine. His breath caught as he stared, frozen to the spot, unable to make himself move.

The medics were rushing. Jack was intently focused on his computer screen as the scene played out. What the hell was going on down there? He couldn't tell from the feed, so he zoomed in and watched as the picture refocused.

Chase was standing still as a board. Not moving.

Jack suddenly had a bad feeling. His eyes slowly moved from the image of Chase to the group of EMTs who'd congregated around the seventh body.

It was almost as if it was playing out in slow motion. They'd picked the body up, and the shadow obscured the light, temporarily making it impossible to see what the medics were looking at. But as the body was moved to the waiting stretcher he felt a lump form in his throat.

"...no."

Lying on the ground, unmoving, eyes closed, was the bruised and beaten body of Chloe O'Brian...the necklace she always wore, broken and tangled in her hair.


	10. Chapter 10

Extrapolation  
Chapter 10

This wasn't happening. How could it be? She would be fine. She was always fine. She'd always been...

Chase's feet seemed to get feeling back and he took off running towards her, only to be intercepted by Marcus.

The EMTs were checking her for pulse and respiration, there weren't any signs and he needed to get to her.

Jack couldn't do anything but watch from afar. He'd give anything to be there. He eyes glued to the screen. This wasn't right. He was frozen, staring in disbelief. His breath caught in his throat. It felt like the chair had been pulled out from underneath him. Jack's dropped jaw and utter disbelief caught Edgar's eye. Jack didn't even hear it when Edgar called to him.

Edgar had worked with Jack for long enough to know that there were few things that would bring about this sort of reaction...and he figured that it was same thing that had sparked his outburst, his hitting the desk several days before.

Milo was passing by, delivering a folder when he saw it.

His attention left the screen as he realized she didn't know...

He turned on his heel, looking for her. She was heading back to Field Ops. If she saw this...

He thought quickly and moved to intercept the crayon-toting kindergartener.

"Hey short stuff," he approached her with a small smile, as if everything was fine.

She frowned a bit at the name. "Angela."

"I know," he nodded. "You want a soda?"

She was hesitant to answer. She'd been introduced to Milo before, but still she didn't _know_ him.

"Well..." she thought for a moment...he had one of those ID badges and her daddy seemed to know him. She'd have to do one thing first...she wasn't going somewhere with an 'enemy agent' without someone back at headquarters knowing. "Lemme tell Grampa Bill first."

The girl took off and ran up the stairs to the second level. She rushed into the office of the regional director and Milo could see him nodding.

As she exited the office and made her way down the stairs, Bill followed, stopping at the railing and glancing down at the analyst, serious concern etched in his features. The look was echoed by Milo, who covered it, pasting a smile on as the little girl bounced over to him.

"Okay, let's go."

Pulse...Respiration...

A thought went through Arthur Fletcher's mind as he looked down at the young woman he'd been checking... no one should die like this... There was no reason for the eight bodies they'd found.

It was days like this that he wondered why he'd chosen to be an EMT. After twelve years on the job, he still had days he hated his job.

He motioned for another stretcher. It was then that he heard footsteps running up behind him. Glancing behind him he saw a man running and another one was lying on the ground, having been pushed down. Two of his fellow EMTs intercepted the man, holding him back. He was yelling her name.

'Chloe...' he looked down at her. It fit her.

He was about to stand up and help with the stretcher when he saw something from the corner of his eye... something that made his eyes widen. Her fingers...they were moving.

"Mark! Quick! We've got a live one!"

Tony Almeida found himself wandering around his old stomping ground with a sort of bittersweet nostalgia.

After everything that he'd gone through in this place, all the good he'd done, the things that always seemed to come back were all the mistakes he'd made... that and meeting his wife, not that the two were in any way connected...

Walking around, he heard several familiar voices greeting him; most were too caught up in their own worlds, or their own work, to notice. He didn't blame them. He'd gotten out of this world. Now working in the private sector with Michelle, now three months pregnant, it was... calmer, different.

He'd been lost in his thoughts and found himself walking by medical... Only after almost passing it did he come back down to earth and remember this was where he'd been heading all along.

The door was shut, and through the window he could see Jack sitting in the chair by the bed. He had expected Chase to be there too, but remembered that Bill had ordered him to spend some time with his kid.

'Smart man, that Bill Buchanan...smart man,' he couldn't help but think.

He turned the knob and quietly opened the door, sticking his head in before allowing the rest of him to follow it inside.

Jack's head turned to the intruder, only to find that it wasn't an intruder, it was only Tony. A weak smile, a forced smile, died on his lips as the man, one of his oldest friends, entered, moving a chair from across the room next to the bed. It was several minutes before either one spoke.

Tony looked at the hospital bed. He'd known Chloe for years, worked beside her on many different operations, hell she'd invited him and Michelle to her parents for Thanksgiving one year. He'd come to consider her a sort of younger sister...but one who didn't find it fun to steal his stuff... He looked at her, lying in the bed, noting how much smaller she looked. She wasn't a tall woman, but it made her look smaller... She'd hate it. He already knew that. She'd hate waking up here. She hated Medical almost as much as she hated her job... It was his experience that she didn't necessarily hate it all the time... He remembered talking to Ross Kessler once about how he did it. He had three kids, a wife and somehow made it work. His answer had been "Take joy from everything else."

"There isn't any change," Jack's voice brought him out of his thoughts and back to reality. "Wish that there was."

"Well, that's a good sign. Things aren't any worse either," Tony tried to look at it differently. "Our girl's a fighter," he said offhandedly. He'd always called Chloe that behind her back; she was one of the few active female field agents with the unit. "She's strong, and she'll pull through."

Jack looked at his friend for a moment before shaking his head. He didn't know what to do, didn't know what to say; this was hard... Harder than anything else he'd been through recently...recently meaning in the past two years or so. He'd been thinking so much these past three days and now that she was back... Kim's words... He didn't know anymore. He finally met Tony's eyes again - the other man clearly seeing his concern, worry and confusion within them - "I hope so, Tony...god, I hope so."

Tony put a hand on Jack's shoulder, patting him on the back, in an attempt to show his support...but Tony could see that Jack needed something else. He'd seen it all along .Hell the whole goddamned office could see it... only right now what he needed wasn't that. "When's the last time you ate?"

"Lunch."

That had been more than a few hours ago. "Sitting here starving yourself isn't going to help the matter, Jack. Head out, get some food."

Jack shook his head. "I've got to stay put-"

"I'll wait here till you get back. And I'll call if there are any changes."

Jack didn't want to go, but Tony wasn't going to take no for an answer...

"You aren't going to do her any good if you don't take care of yourself as well, Jack. She's in good hands. She'll be here when you get back. She's not going anywhere," he promised.

"I know." He was hesitant in standing up. He'd had her hand cradled in his own, brushing his thumb over her skin; the very last thing he did was to whisper "I'll be back," gently placing her hand back at her side. "Keep an eye on her for me, Tony."

Jack had his hand on the doorknob, looking at his old friend as he nodded. "You have my word."

As Tony sat there next to her bed, he noticed that she seemed to be going through REM... He took that to be a good sign...  
Although she couldn't be certain if she was feeling something, she could tell when something was taken away. She could hear the buzz of a light and a low murmur that seemed to float around... but around where?

Earlier she had felt someone holding her hand. She thought that was it, but she couldn't be sure. What she could tell was when it was missing. And it was.

She slowly started to move her head a bit, squinting against the light above her head.

"Melanie, turn it off..." she murmured. Her sister had turned the light on in her room again in an attempt to wake her up. "Do it or I'll tell Mom..."

She heard a low chuckle.

"Mel, I mean it!" she whined.

She tried to turn over when she felt pain shoot through her torso and she shot awake.

She tried to sit up, which only caused more receptors to fire. Tony was at her side in a second, easing her into a reclining position again.

"Hey. It's alright, just take a breath, slowly," he said calmly.

Her eyes had closed again, but she had heard that voice before... she recognized it. She slowly opened her eyes again, and the fog ahead of them started to clear and she could make out a head of dark hair. As they cleared completely she found a small smile crossing her face.

"Tony?"

"So Sleeping Beauty's finally making the scene," he said, a grin playing on his face.

Chloe was coming out of the disorientation she'd felt only moments before, but she caught this.

"Are you quoting _The Bugaloos_?" she looked at him skeptically...she was getting her strength back now, feeling less sluggish.

A small chuckle escaped his mouth as he nodded for a minute. Chloe just shook her head with a roll of her eyes. Only Tony Almeida would steal a quote from a 1960s children's Saturday morning television program and then fess up to it...

It took a moment of Chloe thinking, now that she could do that again, before she realized that there was something wrong with this picture. Namely: Tony Almeida.

"Tony, what are you doing here? You don't work here anymore..." It started to make her think that maybe something was wrong.

"You're a really hard person to track down, O'Brian," he said with a shake of his head. "So how you feeling, kid?"

Chloe's forehead furrowed as she heard this. "...did you just call me kid?"

"Old habits die hard, Chlo'. Remember that. You're a perfect example of it. You and your disappearing acts," he said, ruffling her hair like the affectionate older brother he was.

"Disappearing act-" it was then that everything came rushing back to her and she closed her eyes, biting her lower lip. "What happened?"

He took a breath putting a hand on her shoulder. "They called me in to help look."

"How long?" She wasn't sure she wanted to know, but something inside her told her she had to. She had to get her bearings again.

"Three days."

"...three days? How did I lose track of three days?!" she asked.

Tony put an arm around her shoulder. Chloe'd always had a very good sense of time. He understood how this would bother her... to lose track of three days. "Hey, it's okay. We found you, that's what matters. And you're in one piece." he took her hand and pulled on one of her fingers. "See, it's not coming off."

Chloe looked at him for a moment, feeling pretty much back to normal before shaking her head amused. It never failed; he always seemed to know what to say. "You know you really are a screwball."

"Well one would hope so... Oh and that reminds me," he had had a small bag with him, now seated on the floor next to the bed. He reached down and pulled a small box out of it. "I went home to visit the folks and brought you a present."

Chloe took the box from him and opened it up. Inside was a white mug with a Chicago Cubs logo on it. It was just like the one Tony had always carried around CTU.

As she looked over the ceramic mug, he took out his cell phone and made a call. "Yeah, it's me... she's up...What?...Okay, okay. Just get back up here. Yeah, she's fine. Yeah, bye."

"So when did you get this?" she asked with a small smile, forgetting about the call.

"I figured that with me and my mug gone, they could use another one. I swear I heard from someone that CTU wasn't the same without it," he smirked.

"When did you get this?" she repeated

"A while ago, just haven't had the time to give it to you yet... now seemed like as good a time as any," in truth he hadn't meant to bring it, but he'd left it in his car the last time and it was there...but it was for her, and it might help. So there they were.

She smiled a bit, putting it back into the box and putting it onto the table next to the bed. "Thanks Tony. I'm sure your selfless act to bring Cubby back to CTU won't go unappreciated," she grinned. She gave him a hug.

"Yeah, that's me alright. I-"

Tony's thought was cut off as the door opened. Jack had returned and from the looks of it, he'd not only gotten something to eat, as he was looking a lot better than he had been, but he'd gotten back as fast as he could.

"Well I guess that's my cue. I'm going to go home and sleep with my wife."

Chloe looked at Tony skeptically, before hitting her head with her hand. "Now you're ripping off Clue!"

"I can't get one passed you, can I, Chloe?

"No, you can't. I've seen them all. You forced me to. You and Chase. So now I know them all! It's your own fault!" she exclaimed.

Tony threw his head back as he laughed. "Oh you win." he turned to his long time friend. "Hey, Jack, I'm counting on you to keep an eye on her for me."

Jack smiled a little with a shake of his head. "Don't worry, she's in good hands."

"The best. I'm sure." Tony walked over to the door, trading places with Jack. But before he could exit Jack's voice stopped him.

"Tony." The man in question turned back around. "Thanks."

"Not a problem, Jack. Get well soon, Chlo'. We want you to be ready to help us chase after the tot once it's big enough, and we need you at best form for that." With a wink, Tony Almeida opened the door and exited CTU Medical, leaving two of his oldest friends in his wake.

It was just the two of them in the room now and Jack made his way to where she was sitting on the bed, smiling.

"Hi." It was a stupid thing to say, but it was the first thing that came to mind. He felt like a teenager trying to talk to a girl for the first time...it was rather unsettling.

She could only smile at him. This time, she was pretty sure it was him. She didn't have any memories like this...that she knew of. She could touch everything, and the walls didn't fade in and out.

Jack saw her scrutinizing the surroundings, and how she was poking at things and he approached her. "Hey, everything okay?"

She looked around again before returning her eyes to him and scrutinizing Jack himself. Only then did she answer. "Well, I think so..."

She motioned for him to come closer and as he did, her eyes narrowed as she looked directly into his eyes. During this he sat down next to her. He hugged her, holding her close, mindful of her tender state. Looking down he saw that her eyes were closed. The question was: Why?

"What's wrong?" 

"I don't want you to vanish... I kept hearing your voice and every time I tried to grasp at it it'd eventually disappear. If I don't look, this might stay. You might not disappear." She kept her eyes closed through this whole exchange and he couldn't help but shake his head.

"'Che faro senza Euridice?'" He rubbed her back soothingly, still holding her, a small smile on his face as he spoke. "We found you, it's over. You can look; I'm not going anywhere, my Eurydice."

She looked at him for a moment, a question shining in her eyes.

Drawn to her, Jack brushed his thumb over her cheek with a small smile. "Don't worry about it," he said, looking at her with a bit of laughter returning to his blue eyes, something missing these last days. He looked at her once again, leaning in a bit further, he whispered, "I missed you," bringing his hand to her chin and brushing his lips against hers. It wasn't demanding. Chloe wasn't sure if she was awake, and she didn't entirely care; she felt her lips move against his, enjoying it, in all its sudden and unexpected-ness. It lingered for several moments before breaking.

It took him a moment before he realized precisely what he had just done. While he didn't regret it in the least, he didn't entirely know what to do, this would make things very awkward from now on, wouldn't it?

He looked at her for a second before he found the words. "Chloe, I'm sorry, I-" He didn't get any farther. She didn't like what she was hearing. She didn't want him to continue. Instead of cutting him off with her words, she'd done just what he had moments before. Her lips found his. This kiss was nowhere near as gentle as his. He responded almost instantly. Chloe could feel it all the way down to her toes. Jack wrapped his arms around her. He tried to keep her injuries in mind, but he miscalculated. Chloe winced and he pulled back, Jack was worried he'd hurt her, and that concern mirrored in his face.

"Are you alright?" the question was expected, but she couldn't help but smile a little. She found comfort in how he cared.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Couple of bruised ribs, I've had a lot worse, remember?" she asked trying to make a laugh out of it.

He was clearly still worried, and went to brush a stray strand of hair behind her ear when he caught himself.

"Chlo' I'm sorry."

"What? What for?" She was puzzled by this and shook her head a little with a small chuckle. Chloe would bear the discomfort. She didn't want him any more concerned.

They were quiet for a moment before Jack asked the inevitable question, "So what happened."

"I can't tell you."

Jack blinked a little, squeezing her hand a little. "Chloe, why not?"

"Protocol states I need to speak to Bill first."

"Protocol? Chloe you jus-"

"Jack, please. After what just..." she sighed. "Jack, I need something solid. Something that I can hold onto right now..."

"So hold onto me, not the protocols."

When he said this, she glanced at him, before looking away. She wasn't sure about what he meant... but she'd thought that the kiss had just been...well...a kiss. But after he said that... Finally he got fed up with the silence, however brief it may have been to him it seemed much longer.

"Look, Chloe, do you trust me?"

Her eyes flew up to meet his. "What? Jack, you know the answer to that."

"Just answer the question. Do you trust me?"

"You know that I do, Jack. Completely."

"Then trust me now," he sent a soft smile her way and gave her hand a squeeze. "Do you need anything?"

"No, I think I'm alright." She couldn't smile. She hated hospitals. She hated Medical at CTU. She hated doctors... She liked being healthy and hated feeling out of control. Hospitals and medical facilities made her feel this way.

"Alright. I'll go get Bill."

Jack started to walk away when Chloe grabbed his hand. She looked at him and spoke rather hesitantly. "Think you could stay?"

He didn't even have to stop to think about this one. "Of course." He gave her hand another squeeze and dug his cell phone out of his pocket. Pressing a button he brought it up to his ear. "Bill, it's Jack... Well yes, caller ID is a good thing... Yeah I know... Where? Medical... Yeah...Okay see you in a few."

He turned back to Chloe, placing the phone down on the table next to her bed before taking a seat next to her on the mattress and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "It'll all be alright. And Bill'll be right down."

There was a pause as the two sat there enjoying the other's company. Chloe leaned her head on his shoulder. For the first time since her abduction from CTU she felt safe, genuinely and completely safe. She let herself relax as he put his arms around her.

He smiled down at her, holding her a little bit closer. "You know," he said, softly, "I think you're the only person I know who gets into as much trouble when you've been grounded as when you're not."


	11. Chapter 11

Extrapolation  
Chapter 11

"I really can't tell you much," the admission wasn't one she was proud of. All her training taught her to notice, to be invisible, and she'd done neither. "I'm sor-"

"You hold your tongue; if you're about to apologize, Chloe, don't." Bill Buchanan put his hand on her upper arm, trying to reassure her. "There's nothing to apologize for. We'll find them some other way."

Chloe sighed, wincing ever so slightly. Jack, seated in the chair to the right of the hospital bed, went to move, but her hand stopped him. A small smile passed over her features as her eyes met his. The smile was gone a moment later. It was almost too small a gesture to catch...almost.

"Jack," Bill's attention turned to his senior analyst, "could you give us a minute?"

He didn't want to. He wanted to stay, but clearly Bill wanted to talk to her. It wasn't the content of the conversation that concerned him. After what had happened, no one would blame him...right? Jack stood slowly, deciding not to argue the point. He knew that he would be able to come back in; no one would deny him that...if they knew what was good for them. Walking to the door, he shot her a look, before exiting and closing the door behind him.

As he watched a smile crossed Bill's face. Neither he nor Chloe said anything for several moments. Finally it was Chloe who broke the silence.

"Is it supposed to be like this?"

A small smile passed over his features, a fleeting grin that lasted only a second. "Well, Chloe, if you're talking about your ribs, you already know the answer to that... If you're talking about that look I saw, well I can't answer that one for you. And you know it." He sat down in the chair Jack had vacated and rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to get his thoughts together. This wasn't going to be easy... "It's something that you know when it happens, Chloe, and it's not something that can be explained easily, but you'll know it when it happens."

"Ah, the ever elusive 'something,'" she sighed. "Very helpful," she gave him a look before shaking her head. But there was something off about how he was acting.

Although Bill Buchanan seemed his normal fatherly-self, there was something weighing on his mind. When taken in context this wasn't an abnormal occurrence. He was the regional director of the Los Angeles Counter Terrorism Unit, of course he would have a lot on his mind, but this... somehow this was different. And somehow she could tell.

Chloe looked at him for a moment, the joking exterior fading and her face becoming more serious. "Bill, what's going on?"

"You have to stop jumping to conclusions like that," he seriously.

"Bill, you asked Jack to leave the room. You wanted to talk to me, and I rather doubt that you wanted to talk about the looks between me and Jack; now what is going on?" Her tone was a jarring contrast to what it had been only moments before. Light and amused, now solid and serious.

He took another breath before speaking again. He knew this would happen. He considered her to be a daughter, but she was sharp and knew him... knew him like a book. And when you knew a book inside and out, you already knew how the characters would react.

"I'm sure that you heard by now, the day you were taken, there was an explosion here... We finally put the pieces together. Someone's taking out the agents from the Barringer operation."

Sadly Chloe could only nod at this. "I had a feeling... Just before that EMT put that cloth over my face I was on my way to see Nathan..." her eyes fell slightly as she spoke, shaking her head ever so slightly. "I'd hoped that it was just a coincidence..." She didn't have to say it. They both knew how rarely any coincidences happened; not things like running into someone on the street several times in the same week, but serious unexplainable coincidences. "What happened to him?" she asked looking up at him.

He didn't want to tell her this way. She was injured and didn't need more bad news, but once Chloe O'Brian set her mind to something, you would be hard pressed deter her...

The words came out slowly, and only confirmed her fears.

"He's dead. The bomb was attached to him and we didn't catch it in time." He saw it then. Her eyelids closed and took a slow breath; he'd hoped this wouldn't be her reaction...but as was unfortunately common, hope was dashed and replaced with the harsh hand of reality.

As she opened her eyes, Bill could have sworn he saw them flash. He didn't want to tell her the rest, but at the moment... The realization hit him that he had no choice. Chloe was the only person (aside from Chase) who had details about the operation...

"I want to know what happened, Bill," her face had turned serious; her voice held none of the laughter present just minutes before. "There were sixteen of us! Have we gotten warning to the others ye-"

"They're gone."

These words hit her like a mallet striking a mirror. Her eyes widened, her jaw opened but no sound came out and she froze, stiff as a board, staring straight ahead. The words echoed in her head and she tried to block them out.

"Wh-what do you mean 'gone?" She found her voice again, but it wavered as she forced the words out.

Bill looked at her, wishing he could do something to help...but what could be done?

"They all knew the risks, Chloe, they-"

"What do you mean they're gone, Bill," her words came out slower this time, indicating that she was not kidding around. And as much as Bill didn't want to tell her, he knew that he didn't have a choice.

After a moment, he finally was able to get the words out.

"They're dead, Chloe," he tried to stay as professional as he could...not an easy accomplishment given the circumstances - he had to tell her the rest. "We found you with them, in a lot a couple miles from here."

She turned to him, her eyes wide and a look on her face best described as disbelief, horror and confusion. Her mind flashed back to her time in captivity and she thought about the pain she'd endured. It had been mostly physical; she wasn't coherent for most of it. But despite all of this, this hit her like yet another blow to the gut.

"They're all dead?" she asked, her voice was a whisper. "How?" she paused for a second before changing her mind. "No! Don't." She didn't want to believe this. How could it have happened? Why!? They hadn't deserved this!

Through the year and a half she'd worked with these people, they'd become a close knit bunch. That bond had lessened in the years following, but she remained in contact with certain members of the operation team.

"Who?" the word was all that she needed to say for Bill to know. Names... she wanted names. His heart went out to her. It had been before his time as director, he didn't have the personal connections with them, but no one deserved this. No one.

"Lewis, Hart, Young, Tanner, Persel, Wells and Exley."

She found it hard to breathe for a moment as she heard them. "Dorothy, Anthony, Rachel, Brian, Logan and Lyle?" her voice was a whisper and she felt tears starting to form in her eyes, she did her best to hold them back. She couldn't even come up with a response as she sat there.

Bill saw her bite her lip and stood up. He put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but she practically threw it off. He knew that this was when it was time to leave her alone. He didn't want to leave. He felt he had a duty to stay and comfort her, but she didn't want him there... His heart went out to her, but it wasn't what she needed. As he backed out of the room, opening the door and stepping out, he found himself facing Jack - standing outside the room, waiting. 

"I'm not going to apologize, Jack, she needed to know..." he regretted it, but couldn't apologize. It was his job... "Even if she won't say it, Jack, she needs you," he said it quietly, just loud enough for the two of them to hear. He had a pained expression on his face as he remembered the look on her face.

Nothing more needed to be said. Jack was through the door in a matter of seconds. He found her sitting there, her legs now dangling over the side of the bed, tears falling, despite her efforts to control them. His heart nearly broke at the sight and before this he never would have known why. He sat next to her, wrapping his arms around her small frame, trying to comfort her.

She couldn't speak for the first several minutes and when she could she didn't. She just sat there, ignoring the discomfort of her ribs and attempting to regain control... it wasn't working.

"They didn't have to die," she managed to get the words out between sobs. It was all that she would say before a fresh set of tears formed and fell.

He rubbed her back, trying to rock her, but her injury supplied a significant enough obstacle that he stopped. What could he do?

She buried her head in his chest and let go of the resistance, letting the tears flow freely.

"Please hold for the President."

There was a click on the line and a voice was heard over the earpiece.

"President Palmer."

"Bill, Karen tells me that Agent O'Brian's condition has improved." President Wayne Palmer hated getting calls on his cellular phone. The only thing he ever heard over the device was bad news. Today, however, today seemed to be an exception to the rule. "I was just calling to see how she is."

If it was one thing that he'd learned from his brother David, it was that Chloe O'Brian was someone you wanted to know... She was someone who's good side you wanted to be on, and someone whom the country was safer for having.

Bill Buchanan shook his head a little bit. Leave it to his wife to inform the president...on the other hand it was her job, so how could he possibly fault her for it?

"I understand your concern, sir. Agent O'Brian is awake. She doesn't seem to have any memory loss. Cuts, bruises, a few bruised ribs, one possibly broken. All things considered she's doing well."

"Has she been debriefed?"

"She's been told what happened, and I'm afraid it is cause for concern...division wants to put her up in one of our safe houses."

On his side of the line the President found himself nodding. "I understand. Thank you for the update. Please give her my best wishes towards a speedy recovery."

"I will, Mr. President."

The call was ended on that note and turning around, Bill found himself the target of a serious looking, fully clothed Chloe O'Brian. Needless to say he was startled.

"What are you doing out of Medical?" he blinked a few times. "You were ordered to stay put until the doctors gave you a clean bill of health."

She steeled herself against her emotions at this moment, staring him down. "I'm not going to any safe house, Bill. I need to finish this."

When she gave that look there were few people who would continue to argue with her. Unfortunately for Chloe, Bill Buchanan just happened to be one of them.

"It's not my decision. Division thinks that you're too emotionally involved in this. Between Ross' death and now this, they don't think you can stay objective, Chloe. I'm sorry. It's out of my hands."

She quirked an eyebrow at him, an almost amused smirk on her face. "Division thinks I'm a loose canon anyway, let them try. I'm finishing this, Bill. With or without your help," she said this so calmly, she was so controlled at that moment, that it made Bill rather uncomfortable; by now he was used to it, she had some rather unconventional methods, but she always got the job done.

"Chloe I can-"

"You can't stop me either," she said coldly. She took a moment, taking a breath and trying to calm down a bit. "Bill, they're our own. Their deaths can't be for nothing. I'm the last one and Chase was fired...even if he wasn't I wouldn't let him do this...he has Angie to think of. I'm the only one who can do this. I have the knowledge and the training! And if you send anyone else, they're likely to get killed. I need to stay on this. Emotional involvement or not." There was a determination in her tone which indicated she would not back down from this. Bill knew the tone well.

"Chloe..." he trailed off. He didn't like this. "I don't like the idea of your being out of the action. But you're injured. How are you even wearing that vest?" he was worried, as any father would be.

"I had help wrapping my ribs and padding the vest. Same protection, no direct pressure on my ribs." She said. Now she was trying to convince him. "Bill..."

He didn't want to let her, but he knew that if he didn't okay it, she'd just do it anyway...let no one say that Chloe O'Brian was against breaking orders. She had her own idea of what needed to be done. And, in retrospect, most of the time she seemed to be right too; but that was impossible to tell in the here and now. "You don't go dark, and you stay in constant contact. Anything happens I'm pulling you out of there," he said sternly. "Is that clear?"

She nodded. "Perfectly."

There was a pause as they realized what this meant. Bill was thinking about what the hell he was going to tell Division when he caught the look of gratitude in her eyes. He met it with a sad smile and a nod of his head.

Chloe turned around and was heading back to her office when she was pulled aside and into the hallway by a hand.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Jack's voice held worry and confusion in it. She'd left Medical after he'd gone to take a phone call; when he'd returned she was gone. And now she was here, dressed the way she did when she was going into the field and after what he'd just overheard between Chloe and Buchanan...

She looked up at him with a sincere look and said simply, "My job."

"Chloe you're not well enough for this. What happens if your ribs start to-"

"They won't," she tried to assure him by putting a hand on his cheek, but he looked down at her, his blue eyes holding a steely glint to them.

"And how do you know that?" he spat. A moment later he realized just how it had sounded. He looked away from her, not able to meet her eyes. "You go out there, and you go risking your life. You do it on a daily basis, Chlo'... But this time... Chloe, we almost lost you!" he bit his lip for a moment before adding, "I almost lost you..."

"That's not going to happen this time, Jack. That was different," she'd realized that she had to ignore what had happened to her. At least for now. Her own revenge would meld with her revenge for her friends, and that would be enough for her. "The last time, no one knew what had happened. You didn't know. I'm going to have the best people working with me, guiding me." She brought her fingers to his face, forcing him to look at her. Her voice was serious, but she was clearly trying to sooth his nerves.

She brushed her fingers over his cheek with a small smile. "We can do this. Together, just like always." With her other hand she put her hand over his, as if to symbolize this.

He looked at her for a moment, catching her off her guard as he closed the gap between them, covering her lips with his. He was pleased to feel her lips moving against his and he angled his head deepening the kiss. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him as his tongue ran over her teeth, demanding entrance. She slowly opened and his tongue darted in and began to play with hers. She found herself moaning into his mouth, it was exactly what he wanted to hear from her. As he continued his assault on her mouth, she felt herself going light-headed. She couldn't think of anything but him and the moment. She felt warm inside and didn't want this feeling to end, but they'd have to breathe soon.

The kiss lingered for a short time longer before Jack pulled his mouth from hers. She was short of breath and gasping for air. She looked up at him dazed, speaking only in a whisper. "Jack..."

He didn't let her speak anymore, brushing a strand of hair away of her eyes, he leaned in again -- "I love you Chloe." --he whispered the four words she had been aching to hear. He-he loved her? She was about to say something when he turned, pushing her against the wall, and kissed her lips with the force and all the passion he held for her. He didn't see anything but her... it felt so right to be with her like this...

"Alice! Where's that wrench?!"

"Check your tool box, Miles. It's always there," she said walking over to her brother. "And you always ask me where it is before you even look for it yourself. How lazy is that?" she kicked the bottom of his sneaker, sticking out from under a car as he worked on the undercarriage.

"Hey!"

"Oh grow up, you twenty-seven. If you can't deal with me picking on you by now, you really should see Doctor Beade," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"You just watch Alice. I will get out of here," he said from his spot under the car. "Now where's that wrench?"

She rolled her eyes and handed him the tool. "You always say you're going to leave, but none of us ever go anywhere. The town couldn't survive if one of us left. You know that," she said with a frown. "So just quit it. You're twenty-seven; you've been saying that since you were eight. You'd have done it already if you were going to."

With that Alice Harner turned on her heel and walked out of her and her brother's garage. Going to check the mail, she saw one of her neighbors, Joe Litman, standing outside his house. From where she stood, Alice could see practically every house in town.

Maypoint, California was a small town far away from any of the state's big cities. If one was to look for it on a map, they would have a hard time finding it. The town had a population of fifteen people, eighteen during the summer when the Graves family came up to visit. It was one of those towns...if you'd call it a town... that was so small that everyone knew everyone else. They rarely played host to visitors, but every so often a person would stumble on this little town by mistake. They would be treated to the town's hospitality and sometimes they chose to stay. That had been what happened with the Graves, after all.

For the passed several months, the town had played host to a group of men and women whose vehicle had broken down just outside of town. For the life of him, Miles Harner could not fix it. He was good with cars, but this one he couldn't' figure out. Every time he fixed what he thought the problem was, another one would appear. Eventually the group, two men and two women, had told him to forget it; the car was a piece of junk and they said they liked it here, but he loved a challenge, so he continued his repairs anyway.

Footsteps approaching Miles' spot under the car caused him to stop and listen for a moment.

"You just don't give up do you, kid?" The oldest of the visitors, Jim Oscar, said with a laugh.

Miles pushed himself out and sat up. "Well, you know me, Jim. I'm stubborn," he said, laughing along with the man.

It was a well known fact that Miles Harner was the most stubborn young man in the whole town.

"Well, your sister told me to come and get you. Dinner time, buddy."

"Oh great! I'm starved." The younger man took off like a shot to go and wash up, leaving Jim alone in the garage.

Jim stooped down to look at the undercarriage. He took the wrench and hit something. "That should set him back a while," he said quietly to himself. They had a job to do yet, and it wouldn't do to have something like this interrupt the flow of their plan. So long as they were 'stuck' here, they had reason to stay and be seen around town. They had access. And that was what they needed.


	12. Chapter 12

Extrapolation  
Chapter 12

"Pass the noodles!"

"No, I'm not done with them yet."

"Ross, you want an egg roll?" 

"Nah, I'm okay. But those noodles look good."

"Except that Logan's not done with them yet."

"Hey, get your own noodles, guys."

"Oh that's it!" Milo Pressman stood up and walked around, taking the noodles from Logan Wells. He smiled almost too pleasantly before handing them to Rachel Tanner. "Maybe now we can all stop bickering."

"Since when did you care about bickering ending, Milo?" Lyle Exley asked with a laugh, slapping his friend on the back as he sat back down.

"Oh shut up."

"Both of you shut up. My kid's better behaved than you two," Chase Edmunds said. He tried to pick something up with a pair of chopsticks and failed miserably. He glared at the two pieces of wood in his hands before deciding it wasn't worth it. He got a plastic fork from the bag.

This wasn't the usual setting, but it was the usual crowd. Those that could get away for a weekend did and they all met up on Friday night. Normally they met in a restaurant or somewhere fun, but tonight...well tonight was clearly not a night that they'd wind up at a bar doing shots.

They were like an army troop, one who stuck together after the war ended. They were comrades-at-arms...and some were more.

Milo glanced over at his long-time friend Lyle, amused. Lyle kept looking to the door, waiting for something. 'Someone,' Milo thought rolling his eyes. He glanced into the bag of takeout and a grin spread across his face. "Hey, look at this, sushi!" he said loudly. He had the foil container in his hand and was about to open it when she finally appeared.

"Unhand my dinner, Pressman."

And with that, Lyle was up. Walking to the door, he greeted her with a hug.

Chase laughed, nearly choking on his food in the process, ending in a coughing fit and a smile. "Well I guess that that is one way to call her," he said once he finally was able to speak.

Chloe returned Lyle's hug, pecking him on the lips, before sending a glare Chase's way. "Not funny, Chase." She marched over to Milo and plucked the container from his hand. "And I'll thank you not to intrude on my meal," she said looking down at Milo, who was seated at the table. "You won't like me if my blood sugar drops, I tend to get cranky."

After she said this she realized the absurdity of her words and she let out a laugh of her own as she sank into the chair right next to Lyle. She looked around the table, taking an inventory of who had made the trip this time. Chase and Ross she knew would be there, hell the three of them worked out of this office. Joining them in this trip were Milo Pressman and Chloe's boyfriend Lyle Exley of CTU Denver, Rachel Tanner of CTU San Francisco and Logan Wells of CTU Boston. All in all it wasn't a bad turn out. At least it wouldn't have been, if they'd been able to actually do something.

"So tell me, Chlo', why is it that the rest of us can all be on time, but you seem to be late? I mean we're sitting here in the LA CTU break room and you can't get here on time?" he'd meant it to be amusing, but it came out rather accusingly.

Chloe frowned. "Well it's not my fault that we've got a situation, Lyle."

"Lyle, lay off. You sound like an idiot," Rachel said, taking an egg roll.

"Hey I didn't mean it like that." he defended. 

"Oh come on, yes you did, we all know you Exley," it was Logan who said this. "Don't pay attention to him C.A." C.A. Chloe Agatha. It was Logan's nickname for her. "We all know who the better field agent is anyway," he said sending her a wink.

Chloe smirked at this, taking a seat next to her beau. "Personally the fact that Driscoll's letting me take a break at all while this is surprising. The fact that she's letting us use the break room like this is a miracle. You all know what I mean," she said with a glance around the table.

There was a creak and the group turned, seeing the door open.

Standing in the doorway was Jack Bauer, he'd been about to enter when he noticed the group sitting at the table. Among them Chloe and her boyfriend. He recognized Chase and Ross immediately, and he remembered Milo Pressman from the time he'd worked in LA.

"Oh...Sorry, I didn't know it was in use," this said, he was about to close the door when a voice called to him.

"Jack!" Chloe tried to get his attention. He stopped walking but didn't turn around. Chloe found this unacceptable.

She'd been sitting with Lyle's arm around her, but now she stood, much to the annoyance of her boyfriend, and made her way over to Jack.

"Jack, come in," she took his hand and tried to usher him into the room. 

"You sure?" He knew he'd been interrupting, but if Chloe said it was okay...

"Yeah. C'mon, there's plenty of food."

"No there's not!" someone inside called from the table.

Chloe turned around, looking at them with an amused smirk.

"Well then he can have some of my sushi," she shot back.

"What?!" No doubt about it, that was Lyle. "You won't even let me have any of your sushi!"

Chloe's face turned into a rather impish look. "So?"

"So why does _he_ get some?"

Chloe turned back to Jack, taking his hand and walking in with him. "Why?" she said with a smile. "Because Jack Bauer is special and you're not." 

"But..."

"Well you said there wasn't enough food, so he'll just have to share with me."

"But there's plen-"

"And you lied, so you lose. No sushi for you, Exley," she laughed.

The look on Lyle's face was laughable. Something one might see from a character in a Hannah-Barbara cartoon. It was actually pretty funny...to everyone but Lyle.

Less than a month later Chloe and Lyle would agree that it wasn't working and decided to stay friends. It was a mutual decision and unlike most 'break ups' they actually _had_ remained friends... Seven months after that Lyle would disappear, never to be heard from again...until today.

She was sitting in the break room; staring at what, she didn't know, but she was lost in her own little world. This had been the last time she'd seen them. It wasn't that she was that she was confused...if it was one thing she understood it was death. Death was a good friend of hers. Just that she always hoped her good friend would pass over those who didn't deserve his attention. But he'd turn a blind eye to the innocent and the worthy; their conversations he'd called himself the great equalizer. "All are the same in my eyes," he'd say. And despite her argument and those of doctors he'd win in the end.

She had blood on her hands. It wasn't visible, but it was there... for a moment she felt like Lady Macbeth, but then running steps and a cry of "Mama!" pulled her from her thoughts. And before she could do anything her arms were filled with a very worried little girl. Chloe was glad that the vest she was wearing was padded, if it weren't she'd likely be in a lot of pain right now.

Angela wrapped her small arms around Chloe as best she could, refusing to let go. Chloe was able to loosen them a bit, easing the slight discomfort she was feeling in her ribs. She held 'her little girl.' "Hey, what's the matter?" her tone was quiet, gentle and soothing.

"Daddy said you were hurt. They wouldn't lemme see you...but I snuck away 'n' you weren't moving...you wouldn't wake up..."

Chloe's eyes widened a little bit as she looked over the girl's shoulder at Chase, who had walked in after her.

Angela had seen her when she was unconscious? The question was written on her face; it must have been because Chase mouthed 'Jack found her.' She could only imagine what had gone through her little girl's head when she saw it.

"Aww, sweety, it's okay," she soothed, rubbing the little girl's back. "I'm fine. See? I'm right here," she whispered this into the girl's ear, her own eyes closed. "I'm right here..." Feeling like someone was watching him; Chase turned around and saw Jack standing just outside the doorframe, looking on at the two. Jack glanced at Chase, shooting him a nod, before he continued towards the floor and his desk.

"Angie was really worried. She thought that you were...well-"

"Dead."

Chloe looked down at the little girl running a hand through her hair and brushing a few tears from her cheeks. She made the little girl look her in the eye as she spoke. "Angie, I'm fine," she assured. "Besides, you remember that promise I made you, don't you?" A nod. "And what did I say?"

"Th-that you'd always come back."

"And who did I say I'd come back to?" she asked with a small smile.

"Me 'n' daddy."

She nodded, stroking Angela's hair. "That's right. You and Chase...and Jack."

This caused Chase to look at her for a moment. Normally it wouldn't, but the way she'd said...

"Uncle Jack?" Angela asked.

"Uh huh, that's right, Angel." Chloe's lips upturned slightly in a small smile as she looked down at the girl she'd helped raise. Looking over at Chase for a minute, she saw the unasked question in his eyes and simply nodded affirmative.

Angela looked at her mama with a sleepy sort of smile. The five-year-old was overtired. She'd been at the Kesslers for two days, sleeping in Mary's room, and with the two of them together it was like a sleep over. They hadn't gotten much sleep. The kindergartener put her head on Chloe's shoulder, hugging her again. "I'm glad you're awake, Mama."

Chase watched as his daughter fell asleep in Chloe's arms.

Chloe looked up at him with a small smile as Chase took his daughter and lay her down on the couch.

"So, Jack too, huh?" Chase smiled at her. "Well he finally came to his senses," he smirked. "Congratulations Chlo'. Couldn't be happier for you." He walked over and gave her a hug. "And if couldn't have happened to a better pair," but after he said this, he became a bit more serious. "How're you holding up?"

She sighed and rubbed her temples. "I don't know, Chase...I thought that I'd be able to handle it, but all I want... I can't..." she exhaled. "It's all so surreal. They're all gone. I mean, we were all just here. And now..."

Chase nodded silently and pulled her into a tight hug. "I understand Chlo'. I've been thinking the same thing, but I was worried about you, you were closer to Lyle than I was..."

"He was a jerk...a little bit...sometimes, but he didn't deserve this. None of them did... I keep telling myself that, but it doesn't matter. Death strikes again, story of our lives," she sighed. She closed her eyes, trying to clear her thoughts, bringing up a new subject. "Have you seen Milo?"

"He's holding it together. But I think he'll be better once he can get out of here. He's strong, Chloe, but I talked to him; this is the first thing to hit him this close to home in a long time... Bill's thinking about ordering him down to the dungeon. He's been doing that a lot lately, especially since you went missing."

"Stop talking about that, would you? I'm back... and I'm going out there."

Chase had heard all of this already. He'd argue but he knew that it was pointless. Chloe was strong willed. She made her mind up and that was it.

"What do you need me to do?"

"Run logistics with Edgar and Jack. It'd be a big help."

Chase smiled down at her with a knowing look in his eyes. "Alright. I'll do what I can."

A blip on his screen didn't normally bother Edgar Stiles, but today, for some reason it was. He'd been able to reroute the satellites where they needed them, but someone had been countering his actions. He was working to trace the problem, but so far could find nothing. And that was worrying him. The blip meant the search was negative and that he was finding unsettling.

He'd tried everything he could think of and still it wasn't working. He wasn't a senior analyst for nothing, but either he was on a wild goose chase or there was more going on here. Either way, he wasn't taking chances.

Jack was on his way back to the Field Ops 1. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Edgar turned in his chair, not taking the time to see the look on his face before speaking.

"Jack, there's someone countering my satellite movements."

Jack sat down at his station, taking the time to log in before answering. "Have you checked the EM Protocols?"

"That's the first thing I did. And they're all fine. There's something else here fighting me for control; it keeps countering my commands."

A few clicks brought Jack to the screen he needed. Nothing was showing up, but as Edgar tried again, with Jack monitoring the process, it was clear that there was something going on. Satellite 1 was being rerouted away from Topeka, Kansas.

He didn't like this. Neither of them could see anything wrong, but it wasn't hard to mask stuff like this... No, correction: It was hard, but if you knew how to do it, it was do-able.

"Try it again, Edgar. I'm going to try something."

Edgar set up the protocols again and started to redirect the satellite. Four minutes after the successful repositioning it began to move again.

"Are you doing that?" Jack was typing something, trying to track the source.

"Nope. This is what I was talking about," Edgar replied, inputting his commands again, playing tug of war against an unknown assailant.

As the data streamed across the screen, Jack did his best to narrow the source. It wasn't working. This wasn't easy; the location was being routed through a number of different points, more than he could count.

Taking one hand off the keyboard, he hit the panel on the phone, not knowing what buttons he was pressing, but hoping he'd hit the right one. He heard the dial tone and then the sound of dialing.

"Milo, I need you to jump on the system and help me track this."

Needless to say, Milo didn't know what this was, but the urgency in his voice told him to do it now, then ask questions...which he did.

"What's going on?"

"Someone's subverting Edgar's attempts to redirect the satellite. It's heading away from Topeka." He was typing furiously. Topeka wasn't exactly in their jurisdiction, nor was it a high priority target, but that satellite was supposed to be monitoring the city. There was something going on here that just didn't seem kosher. "I'm trying to track the source."

Milo didn't need to hear anything else. He jumped in and with two people tracking for a little while it looked like there was progress being made... until Jack looked at the live feed and saw what was happening.

He'd checked it before and everything had been fine, but now...

"Can I have everyone's attention please?" Bill was standing at the railing of the second floor by his office. "We have a situation. As of right now no one is leaving the building and all government agencies are on lockdown."

What he'd seen only seconds before, and what he was seeing now... the town that the satellite had been redirected towards, McKindi, Kansas. The town wasn't there. Where there had been buildings before were rubble and flames.

What had been a town was now a pile of debris, burning in the chill of the late afternoon.


	13. Chapter 13

Extrapolation  
Chapter 13

"...speculations, assuring that a sequel was in the works. And if you're just joining us, tonight's top story, a massive explosion less than seventy-five miles outside Topeka, Kansas," the television set on the wall was on.

Although it had happened right in front of them, many of the interns on the floor found that it was easier to watch it on a television screen where they were, to a degree, detatched from the action.

"Details are still somewhat sketchy, despite the scale of this disaster, but sources tell CBN that at the top of the hour, a series of explosions went off in the small town of McKindi, Kansas. There here has been no comment from government or local officials, but satellite images say more than enough. As you can see. fro-"

"Turn it off. Or change the chan-" it was cut off as the phones started ringing.

"CTU, Bauer."

"Edgar Stiles." 

"This is Milo."

"Jamie! Pick up line three! You two stop standing around staring at that screen!" One of the other interns started to berate the others in her group as they failed to do their jobs.

This was what Chase and Chloe found themselves caught up in when they walked onto the floor. 

Chloe saw the images of what was once McKindi, Kansas and her mouth fell open. "Oh. My. God..."

Chase had run ahead of her to see what he could do to help. Was it just him or did things always seem to get better and then have a great big downward spiral immediately following?

"Chloe!" Over roar of the floor, Jack somehow managed to call her and motion her over. She was ignored for several moments as he listened to the man on the other end of the telephone call, taking some notes. There were no parting words between him and the speaker as he hung up.

He looked up at her with a hard look in his eyes. She was worried; something was wrong, she knew it. She was about to inquire, but never got the chance.

"We have contact!" Jack handed her the notes that he'd taken. "They got a email at the branch office in Topeka. Didn't know what to do so they called here." 

On the paper were scrawled several words that sent chills up Chloe's spine.

'To it, we come.'  
"...from government or local officials, but satellite images say more than enough. As you can see from these photos... They speak for themselves. We will continue to follow this story and bring you more as it becomes available."

"Turn it off, Tom." The voice was quiet.

"But sir-"

"I said turn it off. Or mute it! I don't care! I want answers."

They'd been moved to the bunker as soon as word had arrived. The Joint Chiefs were gathering and Vice President Evan Michaels had been sequestered; the staff was working, trying their best to gather the bits of intel that was out there as fast as they could.

What bothered him wasn't that he'd found out this way, it was that the staff knew little more than the TV anchor he'd ordered silenced.

He keyed back into the conversation, glancing at the photos his aide, Charlie, had placed onto the desk in front of him.

One look was all he needed.

"You mean to tell me that the entire town is just gone?" his tone was deathly serious.

"Yes sir. The Counter Terrorism Unit in Topeka hasn't finished their initial analysis yet, but they suspect C4 may have been the source..."

"We don't know yet?" he asked, inspecting the photos again.

"No sir... Nadine Orman estimates they should know in an hour or two...We think that it may take longer. There's a lot to go through." The man, Tom Lennox, pursed his lips for a moment, thinking.

"How many?"

"Mr. President, I don-"

He was cut off by a sharp look.

"I want to know how many people, Tom." Wayne Palmer was in no mood to be toyed with.

"Twenty-six," Jack said, checking the stats he had on the printout he was holding as he followed Bill Buchanan to the briefing room.

"That's all?" It seemed heartless, he knew how it had sounded, but of all the places to be targeted for an attack... "Not a lot of people," he murmurred to himself, not entirely understanding it.

"That's it," Jack confirmed. "The last census listed a total of twenty-four, but the newest tax records indicate two additonal people."

Bill stopped for a moment before they reached the room, glancing at Jack. "The latest tax records haven't been released yet..."

Jack cut him off. "Bill, desperate times. The IRS isn't going to care. And that's if they ever find the hack."

Bill let it go. There were other, more important things to deal with than Jack's computer activities...

They were heartless bastards all of them. How they could do this was far beyond her comprehension as the words came out of Bill's mouth.

"Division wants us to leave it alone."

The room was silent for a moment before the voices began crashing into one another in an uncoordinated chorus of "What" "How could they-" "When did this-" and such.

"Quiet!" Bill hardly ever raised his voice, but it was necessary at the moment. All eyes were on him now. "I know you all don't want to do this. Especially after we were the ones who caught what was happening, but this is out of my hands. Division has ordered all branch offices, with the exception of Topeka off the investigation." he sighed. "This being the case, and since we've all been here on a double shift, I want all non-essential personnel, field agents included, to go home and get some rest."

Another chorus of disbelief started to sound and Bill just held his hand up.

"We're all on edge. And it isn't going to do anyone any good if we're falling asleep at our stations, so this isn't a suggestion, it's one of my oh-so-rarely-given orders," he tried to make a joke of it. "Well get going. We're all back here tomorrow...or when something happens. You're not off tonight, everyone, you're on call. See you in the morning."

There were grunts and grumbles from the staff about being sent home...well actually most were more than happy to go home for some sleep. Only one seemed to have a problem with it, and Bill had expected this to happen.

"Chloe, you're not exempt," she'd tried to go back to her office.

"I've got a job to do, Bill."

"You have a rib injury. Now I want you back in Medical."

Chloe hated medical. "I can't sleep down there anyway, I may as well be here."

"Not this time." Bill was firm on this.

"I'm not going ho-"

"Chloe," it was Chase, "will you just listen to him? Look, take Angel home and put her to bed. Then you go to bed."

"I don't want to go to-"

"I'll take her," Jack's suddenly joined the conversation.

"What is this? Don't I get a-"

"Great. Thanks Jack. I'll stay here if anything happens. Get them home and to bed, alright?" Chase nodded to Jack before heading off towards the floor.

Jack turned toward Chloe and said, "Okay, you go take the kevlar off, I'll get the kid." Before she could say anything he was already heading toward the break room and she was alone in the glass-walled briefing room, glaring at no one in particular.

She walked around the car, opening the back door. Angela hadn't woke up on the ride home despite several potholes that they'd bumped over.

Chloe started to lean down, going to unstrap her from the carseat, when she felt his hand on her shoulder.

"Let me."

"I can handle it, Jack," she whispered, hoping not to wake the little girl.

A small smile, a quirk, passed over his face as he gently pressed the car keys into her hand.

"I got this one Chloe," he repeated. "When I get her out could you lock the car?"

She let out a let out a reluctant sigh and nodded.

Jack carefully unstrapped the little girl from her carseat and picked her up, she used his shoulder as a pillow, not even realizing that they were moving, still fast asleep.

The door closed, Chloe pressed a button and the car made a 'beep beep' sound as the car alarm turned on. The two adults made their way to the front door and once inside, Jack momentarily glanced around, noting that nothing had changed.

"Where should I put her?" he asked at a whisper.

Chloe led him to a room he'd never seen on his previous visits. It was decorated for a child.

Chloe didn't have to say anything more. He saw the bed sitting in the corner of the room under the mobile that he could tell Angela had made herself. Chloe pulled the sheet away from the mattress and Jack lay Angela down, taking the blanket from Chloe he tucked her in.

He watched as Chloe leaned down, slowly, and kissed the little girl on the cheek before righting herself and walking out. He followed behind her, closing the door.

"I didn't know she had her own room," he said, as they walked down the hallway to the kitchen.

She sat down at the table, crossing her arms on the smooth surface, turning to him with a shrug.

"Yes you did."

Jack stopped at the refrigerator, turning to her with a small laugh. "No, I didn't." He opened the refrigerator. "Hey, want anything?"

"Some alcohol would be nice."

Jack shot her a look and she rolled her eyes.

"Alright, alright. Some orange juice then." she paused. "And you really didn't know? The guest room used to be Chase's. Back when we first moved to LA from DC. When he got his own place, I changed his room, but not Angel's," she smiled a little bit at the thought.

Jack pulled the container from the door and poured two glasses. Walking over to the table he set one of the glasses in front of her. He sat down across from her.

"So those times I stayed over I was sleeping in Chase's room?" he asked with a laugh.  
"Yeah, what is it a problem?" Chloe asked with a shrug. She didn't see why he was-

"Nah, just not something I ever-"

"So stop talking about it, would you?" She was clearly not in the best of moods right now.

Jack realized just how much everything was weighing on her. She set her glass down, having drained it, and he reached across, taking her hand to get her attention.

"Y'know, when you start snapping, Chloe, that's usually a sign."

She frowned. "A sign of what? That I'm frustrated?"

"No," he said, a small smile splayed on his face as he stood up and walked behind her. "It's a sign that you should take Bill's advice and get some rest." His voice was gentle as he put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm not tired." She was betrayed by a yawn which she tried her hardest to stiffle.

"Right," he said with a smirk. "And my system is likely to get hacked. C'mon."

Despite her arguing, he somehow got her to walk to her room.

"Now, just get some rest." He said with a somewhat instistnant look.

"I don't want to sleep." She'd finally given in and layed down.

"You know, you sound like a kid when you talk like that..."

Chloe's glare intensified tenfold when the words left his mouth. "What is it with you and Tony and calling me 'Kid'?" she said, her tone had dropped.

"I didn't call you 'kid," he said brushing her hair away from her forehead. "I said you sounded like a kid. And Tony's...well, he's Tony. Only he can understand his logic. So it's pointless to ask me. I'm not him." He tried to lighten the conversation. More stress wasn't going to help her... not at all.

There was a pause for several moments. Finally Chloe broke it.

"I don't want to sleep...when I sleep I dream and I was 'dreaming' too much when...when they had me." It was quiet, barely above a whisper.

Jack sat down next to her and brushed his lips over hers. "Don't worry, I'll be here when you wake up," he promised. "I'm not going anywhere."

But Chloe wasn't having any of it.

"But what if Angie wakes up? She'll need me. She always needs-"

"A warm glass of milk to help her get back to sleep?" he asked, a smile playing on his lips. "I know the drill, Chloe. Kim was that small once too," he said brushing his thumb over her cheek. "I've got it. You get some rest. Okay?"

Chloe just glared at him. "I hate you."

"No you don't," Jack said with a grin. "And when you get some sleep it'll all be clearer to you." He stood to leave when her voice cut him off.

"Jack, you know, you really don't have to stay..."

He looked down at her shaking his head a bit. "But you see, that's where you're wrong. I really _do_." He leaned down and kissed her again. "I love you, now get some rest."


	14. Chapter 14

Extrapolation

Chapter 14

Her computer was back on her desk and her desk was not here. She never thought that she'd wish she had her laptop with her... not that it would matter. There was no wireless in these buildings. They were so old it couldn't support a wireless system, or so she'd been told.

The area had computers, but thus far she'd been unable to get any information as to what happened... that was, to be more specific, more information, passed what the television was telling them.

An explosion in Kansas? This was a nightmare! Washington had been practically shut down. It didn't take a genius to imagine what was going on behind the scenes at the White House. And Kim Bauer had a pretty good idea what was going on at CTU...

Congressman Crosby and his staff had been moved to a safe area near their office building. It went against protocol, but no one was asking questions right now.

She stared at the television screen in front of her, just as the phone on the desk in front of her rang. She was about to answer when it stopped ringing, having been picked up by one of their Legislative Assistants, Sharon Goldman.

Kim turned to her co-worker as she watched the woman nod several times before saying "Thanks" and hanging up.

"What's up?" she asked. "Did they-"

"They found them and they're being brought down," Sharon nodded.

"Oh thank god," Kim's voice sounded slightly relieved. Who wouldn't be?

In the chaos of the evacuation everyone had been accounted for and brought to this supposedly secure location... everyone except for the interns. In the mess of people, the office's college interns had been separated from the group, among them Kim's assistant Meryl. The staff had been working for the past half an hour trying to find them.

The conversation between the two women was cut off as the door opened by a member of the Capitol Police. Kim walked up to the people who'd walked in. There were five of them in total, they were only slightly younger than she was.

"What happened?"

Abigail Lyman was the first of the group to speak up.

"We followed procedure and went to the meeting spot, but no one was there."

"Oh..." There was silence for a moment as Kim realized that no one had told the interns, who had been taking a rather large tour group around, that plans had changed. "What about the tour grou-"

She was cut off by Adam Fields, a sophomore from American University who seemed to charm everyone who came into the office. "They've been taken care of."

"We left them with several officers when we were told to go to the meeting spot. They're in good hands," Cassie Hamilton reported.

Kim couldn't help it, she found herself chuckling at this. "Well that's good, we can't have our constituents left unattended like that." she rolled her eyes.

The door opened again and the staff of Congresswoman Tiffany Pines walked into the area, interns and all.

The six interns from the Nebraska congresswoman's office joined the five from Crosby's office and together they walked off to, most likely, call their parents. All except for one.

"Abby, come on!" Cameron Harris called to his counterpart. The intern was looking at a folder that was just sitting open on one of the desks. She seemed to be in her own world for a moment before she heard anything.

"What? Oh. Coming!" She closed the folder and walked off with the others. She had paled a bit and her hand seemed to be shaking as she pulled out her cell phone.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she said, her voice was a bit shaky, unsure. "Just...just saw something..." the conversation of the interns faded as they left. No one paid any attention to it.

Kim watched the interns for a moment until she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist. She turned to find Chris standing there.

"My folks are okay. A bit shaken, but they're fine." He pressed a kiss to her temple, holding her a bit tighter, not caring that their co-workers could see them. "How're you?" he asked quietly, rubbing her back.

She let out a short sigh. "We just found the kids," that was how they sometimes referred to the interns, "and I haven't talked to my dad, but I can only imagine the hell that he's going through right now... Nothing compared to your folks but-"

"Let's not compare the hell that people are going through, Kim. It isn't gonna do any good."

Kim's head bowed for a moment a bit like a child, before Chris brought his hand to her chin and raised it again.

"That won't help either," he chided with a small laugh. She couldn't help the small smile that crossed her face. It only lasted a second before it was gone.

"I haven't talked to my dad, but...well you know..."

"Yeah, the whole I could tell you but he'd have to kill me... Still I don't see how a computer specialist could kill me."

She couldn't help but smile at this. "Better not to worry about that, Chris."

He gave her another squeeze before the two separated. One of Chris' co-workers stuck his head through the doorway to the next room and called something, causing the young man to sigh.

"I've got to go..."

"Work to do. People to call, things to be worked out," she sighed.

"Yeah, something like that," he shrugged. "I'll be in there with the others. If you need anything-"

Kim shook her head. "You go on. I'll be fine. Made of strong stuff, you know."

Chris smiled at his girlfriend, kissing her before looking down at her, pulling away and walking into the office.

"So everything's been cleared then-"

"Yes Ethan."

"In all honesty, Congressman, how could we _not_ clear your schedule?"

"Well, just checking," Ethan Crosby asked with a shrug. "The last time we got evacuated we had those calls about-"

"That was a mistake," Sharon said with a roll of her eyes. "It didn't happen this time."

The senior staff followed him in from the other office, Crosby in the lead. He looked around and his eyes fell upon his Legislative Director.

"Kimberly!" Kim walked over to the group and fell in line next to the Congressman. "What's the story Kim?"

"The kids are all in there calling their parental units. Everyone's present and accounted for, and Pines' people just got here."

"Good," Crosby seemed to be a bit more at ease as he picked a folder up from the counter top. "We're still doing business as usual, despite everything," he said turning to one of his staffers, a man named Walter. "Walt, when they calm down a bit, get settled in, I want one of them up here, dealing with anyone who comes in."

Walter Noure nodded and went off to check on the interns. Walter was the staff schedueler and was basically their direct boss.

"Parental units, Kim?" Brandon Miller asked nudging her and shooting her an amused look as the congressman walked back into the office. "Someting tells me someone's seen a bit too much _Star Trek_," he laughed.

"Yeah. You," Kim shot back with a knowing grin. Inside however, she was feeling anything other  
than happy. But she had to put on a show. It went with the job: playing cool under pressure.

The phone on the desk rang once, twice, three times before Kim picked up the reciever.

"Hello?"

"Please hold for the President."

Kim realized that this call wasn't for her. Normally the White House would have called the direct number, but with everything, odds were that they didn't have the direct number. There wasn't time for her to transfer it to Ethan, so she stayed on the line.

"Ethan?"

"President Palmer, sir. This is Kimberly Bauer. I-"

"Ah, Ms. Bauer. Nice to speak to you again. Is Ethan available?"

"Yes sir. If you could just hold for one moment I'll get him for you."

"That would be fine. Thank you, Ms. Bauer."

Normally this was the job of the interns, taking calls and the like, but in this case... well, Kim couldn't help but note the irony as she pushed the little red 'hold' button. She had just put the President on hold.

Pressing another couple of buttons she heard a ring on the other end of the line.

"Ethan Crosby here."

"Ethan, Kim. I have President Palmer on the line for you."

There was a pause before the Congressman replied. "Oh." and another before he replied with anything that actually meant anything. "Well put him through. By all means."

"Right. He's on F." She looked down at the flashing lights on line F and transferred the call.

"Ethan."

"Wayne, how are you?"

"Wish there was time for me to chat, but as you know we have a situation. My people brought a folder to your office. Something happened in your district that you should-"

And that's when Kim hung up. Someone had come to the door with, thank god, a laptop.

It took thirteen minutes of Cameron poking around the operating system for them to come to the conclusion that, despite having plugged the machine into the network port and doing everything right, they wouldn't be able to get connect to the system. No matter what they did. Not that it really mattered...

The phone rang, picked up by Cameron.

"Congressman Crosby's offi-" he cut himself off. "Oh. Yes sir. Right away." Cameron hung up the phone and turned to Kim. "He wants to see you."

That was all Kim needed to hear. She stood up from the desk, ruffling Cameron's hair like she would a younger sibling, bringing about a frown from him. "Keep working on getting us onto the network, Cam. We may be here for a while."

Kim knocked on the door before entering the office. She found Ethan sitting at the desk, his head bent, examining something.

"Kim, come in." Ethan motioned for her to enter. Kim closed the door behind her. He seemed to be staring at some photos, but Kim couldn't see what they were of.

"The call with the president go alright?" she asked, trying to make conversation.

"The call was fine. The content wasn't," he said with a sigh, closing the folder and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Ethan Crosby was a former advsor to President Wayne Palmer. As such it wasn't unusual for him to be called to give Palmer advice...this didn't look like it was one of those times. He looked up at Kim for a moment before speaking.

"There was an incident yesterday in the district. Something that falls within your issues." He said referring to the issues that she was responsible for within the office.

He pushed the folder across the desk towards her. Kim started looking through the pictures as he spoke, feeling a bit queezy as she saw the dead bodies being taken away in the photos.

"CTU reported an agent missing several days ago. As of yesterday, they found her and-"

It was then that Kim saw the last photo. She dropped the folder and ran for the bathroom in the office and promptly found herself relieved of her breakfast. Ethan was right behind her. The younger woman was leaning over the toilet with her boss behind her, rubbing her back like the father that he was. This was no time for self-consciousness.

Once Kim found herself again, her head lay against her arm for a moment, it was now that Ethan spoke up.

"Hey, Kim, you okay?" His voice held his concern. She never acted like this. She was usually so collected...

"Chloe... It's-it's Chloe-" Kim got up and made her way over to the sink. She stood there for a moment before running out of the bathroom and the office and right into Chris...literally.

"Kim! What's wrong?!"

"Out of my way!" She pushed his hands off her forearms and ran into the corridor, trying to pull her cell phone out. She fumbled with the buttons. Unable to get through to her father at CTU and realizing that he wouldn't be the best person to speak with about this, she finally got the number into the device and someone picked up.

"Karen?"

"I don't care how it happened!" Vincent Turner was not pleased.

"Calm down," one of his associates tried and failed to calm the man down. He succeeded only in irritating his superior. He found himself face down against the cold stone floor. He'd forgotten the one cardinal rule...

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down!" the words were practically snarled as Turner held the man down. "Now I don't want explanations. Grendle and Hanson are dead. Better they are; if they'd survived I would have killed them myself," he ground out.

Turner pushed the man down harder onto the floor before letting him up.

"Well we still have the others," the man said, shakily, sitting up.

Turner checked his watch and picking his cellular phone up from the counter top, sitting down again, he made a call.

"Are we ready?" there was a pause as a smile spread across his face. A rather twisted smile. "Good. Don't let there be any mix ups. Not this time." Another pause. "Well, Ben, it's been an honor working with you. All of you. Spread that among your men."

Calls like this had been what Karen Hayes was expecting yesterday... not today. Apparantly the photos had been delivered and she was ready to throttle someone in the mailroom...

"Yes. She's fine." This was the fourth time she'd tried to convince Kim of this fact.

"But I saw the photos and she was-"

"Hurt. Kim trust me, I know how it looked. We all thought that. But she's alive. You got some old information as far as those pictures are concerned. In fact, according to Bill, your dad was assigned to take her home last night and make sure she got some rest."

Karen could almost hear a smile pass over Kim's face as she asked, "Really?"

"At least that's what I'm told." Karen's attention was momentarily distracted by someone brushing passed her in the hallway.

Tom Lennox was making his way speedily down the corridor of the bunker. Walking almost too quickly for it to be considered a 'walk'. It was his speed that truly caught her attention. After their truce they'd gotten to know one another a bit better, and she knew he was not someone to rush around without reason.

Asking Kim to hold on for a moment, Karen, her phone still in hand, followed Tom, trying to catch up with him.

Tom hated bringing news like this. He was surprised that there hadn't been any sort of news coverage of it yet, but it would only be minutes before that began.

He approached the glass door separating the President's office from the hallway, hearing Karen Hayes behind him, her voice getting louder, calling his name. He was about to open the door when she caught up with him.

"Karen, as much as I would like to chat, there's a bigger problem right now," he was thinking of some remark he could fire off, but instead he shook his head. "Come on," he opened her into the outer office. She said something into her phone as he knocked on the door to the inner office.

"Excuse me, Mr. President-"

"Dammit!... What do you mean Port 80 is closed? I opened it myself!"

"I dunno Jack, but it's closed," Edgar reported. The portly man was on the phone with an intern who was kneeling next to the master control grid for the server in the main control room. Edgar was starting to feel a bit uneasy about this whole thing.

Jack Bauer was not in good humor when his network crashed.

And crashed it has. An hour earlier an intern had sent a piece of email and the whole system had locked up. Screens had gone to the blue screen of death and no one could answer why.

Jack had been sleeping. During the night he'd found that it wasn't Angela Edmunds he had to worry about. Chloe had woken up several times in a confusion. After the second time, he'd decided that it would be better to stay closer to her. She seemed to respond to is presence, it calmed her down, which was how he wound up holding her hand all night.

He'd woke up to his cell phone ringing from the night stand. Jack, groggy from his sudden pull from sleep somehow managed to fumble with the phone and mutter "hello" into the mouthpiece. What he'd heard caused him to shoot awake. And now both he and Chloe were back at CTU.

"It's still not working, Jack."

Not the words he wanted to hear. Jack pressed a button on the phone in front of him and muttered something unintelegable as he listened to the ringing.

"Technical Support."

"This is Jack Bauer. I-"

"Mr. Bauer, this is your fifteenth call. What is it?"

He glared at the blank screen in front of him. "Well I wouldn't have to be calling so much if you were doing your job!" he exclaimed. "It's still not working! We need this system up. Now!"

There was a sigh on the other end of the line. "Fine. Give me five minutes-"

"No. Now!"

"Wha- Now? But I- I cannot change the laws of physics, Jim!"

Jack blinked a few times pulling the reciever away from his face and staring at it for a time, before shaking his head. "What?"

"Oh forget it. It was humor." The young man on the other end of the line sighed. "Look we're on it, Mr. Bauer. Stop calling!"

Jack slammed the phone back in its cradle and cradled his head in his hands. So far this day was far worse than he'd originally thought it would be. Looking up from his place at Field Ops 1, where nothing seemed to be going his way, he could see Chloe. She was sitting in her office seemingly loss in thought.

Why were these words bothering her so? She couldn't figure it out. Something at the back of her mind was telling her that she knew them. But from where? Why? 

She'd spent the better part of the hour since she and Jack had arrived trying to remember. She'd had ever intention of typing it into her favorite search engine, only to find that that would be an impossibility...

It occurred to her as she rubbed her temples that it wouldn't make a difference if she remembered or not. The orders handed down from Division, the hands off order, meant not only wouldn't they care, they'd throw it into the discard pile. They'd ignore it. But Chloe didn't care.

There was just something that kept bothering her about this! She knew the words! It was like something just out of reach. Something that was on the tip of her tongue, or in this case her mind, that she just could not access. And it was beginning to drive her nuts.

She needed to clear her head; she needed something to stop the pounding that was starting to resurge in her head. Her desk drawer supplied only an empty bottle of Tylenol, finding this thoroughly unhelpful, she got up and headed to the main floor.

The walk made her a bit nervous. The corridor was the same, but the last time she'd made this walk... It didn't take long for her to reach the spot where it had happened. There was no smoke, no one was running away and the fire extinguishers had all been replaced. She turned around and glanced over her shoulder. There were no 'EMTs' coming up behind her. She sighed to herself, steeling her resolve and squaring her shoulders, before pulling open the door to Medical.

It was as if nothing had happened... Then she remembered that the surgical area was self contained. Self-contained or not, it was clearly visible through a connecting corridor. There was nothing left.

She closed her eyes for a moment, in a silent memorium for her fallen friend...for her fallen friends. Her head hurt more now than it had before. She tried to get the attention of one of the doctors or nurses on duty. Eventually Chloe wound up with two pills in one hand and a paper cup of water in the other.

Taking a moment to swallow the pills, she found that she still couldn't clear her head. She was now more irked than than she was before. Between what she'd seen on the paper and... "The explosion..." she murmurred. She knew there was a connection. She'd heard it before. Read it before... "But who said it?"

Chloe needed answers...She needed to remember, needed her system. Marching out of Medical, Chloe made her way to the floor.

They'd told him not to call again, but Jack was not about to sit there and wait. Technical Support was being no more helpful than a two-year-old asked to perform surgery. Unfortunately he'd had no success trying to fix it with his team.

"You know? Screw it!" he finally exclaimed, throwing his hands up in frustration. He picked up the phone on his desk and was about to press a button when a finger pressed down on the hook. Jack looked up to see Edgar Stiles standing there with a worried look on his face.

"Edgar, can I help you?" Jack was not happy.

"I know that face. You're thinking of resetting the servers, aren't you?" Edgar asked nervously, not removing his finger from the phone.

Jack looked at him blankly. "So what if I am."

"Last time we lost three days worth of data. How do we know the backup protocols are still working?"

"It's their job, Edgar," Jack said firmly. "They automatically take effect when this sort of thing happens!" he said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah, but-"

"And if not, then we have the backup files on the secondary system. We're safe. Now can you please move I'd like to get this done," he said flatly.

Edgar knew that Jack was not in a good mood and that it would be best not to question him anymore... The man walked back over to Field Ops 2, trying to be as quiet as possible.

The finger removed from his phone, Jack pressed a button and got Judy, one of the interns, on the line.

"Yeah, shut it all down and restart the system."

"But-"

"That's an order." That said he hung up. No explanations, no time for back and forth. And a moment later the screens all went black.

He found himself staring at the blank screen. His glasses held in his hand, he rubbed the bridge of his nose and took a breath. He had only a minute of rest before the system came back and he accessed the main operating system, running a system's check to figure out what the hell had gone wrong.

"Jack, I-"

"What? I'm busy?" he snapped. He hadn't looked up from his screen, he hadn't heard enough to recognize the voice. If he had he would have instantly regretted his tone.

"Well, I can see that," Chloe said, standing behind him, her arms crossed. "What I was _saying_, is I need my system." she added with a roll of her eyes. "What's the status?"

If he hadn't been so busy, undoubtably, Jack would have felt like an idiot, but at the moment he didn't have time for that. He was nearly done with the check. From what he could see, nothing was wrong. Everything was in order.

"It should be a minute or so, check's back. Looks like it was just a glit-" He was cut off by the approach of Bill Buchanan, Jack could only see him from the corner of his eye, but the man did not look very happy.

"Jack! I just got a call from tech! They said you-"

"Just a minute, Bill, I'm almost done... This has to work. It's the only thing we could do," Jack said, still not turning around. "We need to fire the people down in tech support." he reported to his superior. "They don't seem to get that around here time is a luxury we don't have."

He typed a few more commands into the system before calling out to his co-workers. "Edgar! Milo! Try it now!"

The two men attempted to reboot their machines, and as Jack has hoped, they succeeded in accessing CTUs system login; at the same time, Chloe's stomach growled. It was gettting close to lunchtime.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call fixing the system," Jack said, somewhat smugly, sitting back in his chair.

With the system back on line, Chloe hoped to find the answer to this. She didn't want to go back to her office, instead she leaned over the back of Jack's chair.

"If you're done gloating and basking in your success, think we could get to work here?" she asked.

Jack's smug look didn't change as he looked up at her with a nod. "So what's up?"

"I need you to look up that phrase from the email we got yesterday."

"What was it again?"

Chloe took a piece of scrap paper and wrote the words down. She didn't want to say it again. Each time she felt like she was missing something, something that was right in front of her.

Jack glanced at the paper and typed in the words. After seeing them again, he remembered the conversation.

CTU's database, which was now up and running after the system restart, had its own search engine. Plugging the criteria into the search box came up with no results, much to Chloe's frustration. Jack looked at her over his shoulder and saw the look on her face. Clearly this was bothering her.

"Well one down," he said pressing a few buttons and trying another database search.

After six searches all they had come up with was a partially deleted file relating to an explosion several years earlier. Just as Jack was about to access the file, his and Chloe's attention was caught by Milo.

"Jack! It's the satellites! They're doing it again!"

Edgar and Milo were doing their best to redirect them, but this time they were locked out of the satellite command subsystem. Nothing they attempted was able to counter these new instructions and the screens soon showed four separate scenes. Four towns, four normal towns. And in the blink of an eye the scenes changed, just like before

Chloe's eyes widened as she saw the scene playing out on the monitors.

A gasp escaped from her lips as suddenly it all made sense. But now it was too late. If only she'd realized it sooner.

It was all there. It all came rushing back to her.

"Oh my god... It's him." She heard the words, but it took her a moment to realize that she had been the one to speak.

Unfortunately Chloe wasn't the only one to hear her. Jack turned away from the horrific images on the satellite hook up, waiting for an explanation. "What? Chlo' what is it?"

"Turner. I heard him say it when... But he's not the first. A-and Chase told me what Nathan told... He's the one we missed! 'To it. We come'?" She stood there, muttering that phrase, staring at the screen as it finally hit her. "They picked new ... But this is... Oh my god, it's Barringer all over again!"


	15. Chapter 15

Extrapolation  
Chapter 15

Ross pushed a new clip into the gun and, checking the safety was on, tossed it to Chloe. Tensions were high and they all knew it.

They were standing outside an old factory building in the middle of what one might describe as a ghost town. Populated by a mere thirty-seven people, it wasn't much of a town.

Time was a commodity right now. One they had no time to waste.

"Alright you guys, this is it." It was time for Ross' 'peptalk'. Everyone listened, even if they didn't move from their positions. "Now we don't know how many of them may be in there. So remember, keep to the plan."

Ross looked to Chloe, standing to his left. Both agents wore kevlar vests. To say Chloe was nervous was an understatement, but she held it in and didn't let it show.

"You ready for this, Chlo'?" Ross asked as he waited for the go-ahead from his earpiece.

She sighed, checking the firearm he'd given her. "I'm about as ready as I'm gonna get," she frowned slightly. "Seven months," she murmurred. "Lets get these bastards," she said seriously.

Ross sent a small smile her way, and then put his hand to his ear. "Yeah, what's that?..." a pause. "Gottcha. Alright people we are a go!"

That was the signal.

Ross and Chloe took point and led the teams to the door. After a count the door was forced open and the teams rushed in. A fight ensued. Bullets flew, bodies fell and before Chloe knew it she was back outside, running after a suspect. She stopped and pulled off a couple of shots.

She watched as the suspect fell to the ground. Clearly he'd been hit. She dashed to his side.

She was a better shot than she'd thought. He was dead.

She was checking for a pulse, and not finding one, when she heard a click and felt something hard and cold press against the back or her head. She froze and stiffened. All she heard was someone murmurr "An eye for an eye," then-

BANG!

Someone fell to the ground, and it wasn't her.

"Chloe!" Ross was running up behind her. "Chloe?"

"Chloe!" Jack was getting scared. She wasn't replying. Just stood there staring at the screen. And after her outburst... It was almost like she was in a trance.

She had attracted the attention of some of her co-workers, but most eyes were on the screen and the horrific scene playing out in front of them. Few people saw it as she suddenly broke away from the group and made her way at a half-run off the floor.

Jack stood up from his chair and, didn't even answer those few calling him as he took off after Chloe. Something was wrong. It didn't take a genius to tell that. And whatever it was, he'd be damned if she was going to shut herself up somewhere alone...again.

Chloe's feet seemed to be on automatic, something she soon regretted. They brought her to the one place she desperately did not want to go.

She ran into her office and shut and locked the door behind her. The blinds were closed already, a blessing in the guise of longs strips of plastic.

She made her way over to the couch. Slipping her shoes off she pulled her knees up to her chest and lay her head atop them. She closed her eyes and slipped back into her head, trying to collect herself.

Unfortunately her peace was interrupted by footsteps drawing nearer, inside the office.

She opened her eyes slightly. She knew Jack was there, but somehow it didn't really register. She was trying to work this all out. Why now? She'd worked so hard to forget that one little thing.

She seemed to fall back into it...

"Chloe?" the tone was filled with concern.

"I'm fine Ross... a little shaken up, but other than that..." She looked away from the man in front of her, not wanting to see the look of worry that she knew would be etched into his features. But she found she didn't have a choice in the matter.

Jack was worried, she was staring and lookign around blankly, as if she were reacting to something that he couldn't see. She wasn't replying to him. He knelt down in front of her and took her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him.

"Chloe." He tried it again and this time he seemed to get through.

She looked up but it wasn't Ross sitting there, it was Jack...

"Chloe, are you alright?" He didn't know how to react to this.

She slowly realized what had happened and bit her lower lip. She looked around for a moment, and the realization hit her.

"How the hell did you get in?" She'd locked the door. She cut him off before he could even get a word in. "Never mind. I don't want to know." she said, shaking her head. "Jack, I'm sorry...It all just came back and-"

He brought a finger to her lips to get her to stop talking. "Shhh. You don't need to explain it," he assured her. "Are you alright?"

She sighed and shook her head. Rather than her traditional response of 'alright is a relative term' she just exhaled. "I won't be 'alright' until this is all over with, Jack. This one... I haven't been this emotionally involved in..." she shook her head again. "I don't know..."

He took a seat next to her and wrapped his arms around her, Neither needed to say anything. It wasn't necessary. They sat there for several moments until they were interrupted by the fax machine coming to life with a hum.

Chloe pulled away from Jack, slipping her shoes back on, and walked over to the machine, wondering who would be sending her a fax. She wasn't expecting anything.

Once it finished printing Chloe found herself looking at a photograph... A woman and two girls, and a message. 'What's missing?'

Chloe only glanced at the paper for a moment before stuffing it into her pocket. She kept her cool, but as she thought about it, she knew precicely what it meant... It was a message to her...

She walked back over to where she'd left Jack, seated on the couch, and forced a smile on her face, being careful to let none of her sudden concern show. "C'mon... Bill'll be wondering where we went. We're in the midst of a national emergency, they're going to need us."

Making it back to the floor, Jack went back to work at Field Ops, trying to sort the data to find out what the hell was going on with the satellite. Bill was on the phone with Division, no doubt trying to get them revoke their 'hands off' order.

Chloe sat down at one of the unmanned terminals and logged into the system. Unfortunately, she found, despite her previous crash course in the subject, she couldn't remember how to do it.

Carefully looking around, she picked up the phone next to the computer and dialed a number.

"Edgar Stiles."

"Edgar, it's me, I need you to run a triangulation for me."

Edgar was puzzled for a moment. From the corner of his eye he could see Jack at his desk working on something. "You sure you don't want Ja-"

"Quiet. Don't say his name. I don't want him finding out about this..." she paused. "I have my reasons, Edgar. Just do it, please? I'll owe you one, alright?"

The urgency in her voice was enough to keep Edgar from asking any more questions. He could tell this was important. "Alright, what's the number?"

It took about seven minutes before Edgar was able to bring up a location. He printed out the map of the area along with the coordinates. After grabbing the print outs and uploading the information to her phone as a back up, he walked the papers over to where she'd been sitting and waiting.

"Thanks Edgar. You don't know how much I appreciate this." Flashing Edgar a small smile, Chloe made her way to the Briefing room where Bill was currently on hold with Division.

Edgar sat back down at his desk. He tried to get back to work, only to feel a pair of eyes burning into the back of his head. When Edgar turned, there was nothing there, but Jack was gone.

Chloe had given Bill just enough information for him to think she was going to survey another possible target. She left out the part about the fax. She had a vehicle waiting in the lot and was on her way to the exit when Jack suddenly stepped in front of her, nearly causing her to run into him.

He spoke first.

"What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"You called Edgar for something and then-"

"I'm checking out another possible target site," she said, keeping with the cover story. She thought she kept her face neutral but something must have given her away because he didn't let it go with that. He didn't say anything, just looked at her in a way that showed he wasn't buying it. "What?" she asked, with a shrug.

"Chloe, what's going on?"

She put on a puzzled face and shrugged again. "I don't know what you mean, Jack. But I have to go." She suddenly got an idea. She took a step closer to him and kissed him. She took a moment to deepen the kiss a bit before abruptly pulling back, saying "Bye" and taking off down the corridor.

She got to the parking area and got into the vehicle, and only then did she find that her plan hadn't been as successful as she'd hoped. She'd been hoping that he'd be a bit dazed by the kiss so she could make her escape. But not a moment after she closed the drivers side door she found she had company as Jack ran up to the passenger side and climbed in.

He had a frown on his face as he closed the door, an amused on which didn't match Chloe's look of annoyance.

"So you thought you could get rid of me through the old distraction method?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow.

She frowned at him. "Get out. I need to do this."

"Look I don't know what's going on, but if you think I'm letting you do it on your own you're crazier than even Division thinks you are," he said, trying to tinge his seriousness with himor. "Now what the hell is happening?"

Chloe pulled out of the lot and onto the road, following the map Edgar had printed.

She didn't say much to explain it. She didn't have to...

"They have Maggie..."

"So what are we going to do with her now?" one of the men asked, leaning down into her face.

To say that he needed a Tic Tac was putting it lightly. He needed a whole box of Tic Tacs..

After her father's death, Maggie had started sleeping in his study. She didn't know why, nor did she know why her mother had decided to allow her to do it (especially after it was broken into) but she wasn't going to argue.

Late the previous night she'd woken wanting a glass of water. Groggy and still half asleep, the girl had made her way to the bathroom in the hallway. Upon returning to the door of the study she found herself wide awake. She could swear she heard something moving from within.

She looked around for something to use as a weapon, or soemthing to scare the possible intruders with, but found nothing.

She'd fallen asleep in her clothes and in the pocket of her oversized sweatshirt she had her father's gun, safety on, but she didn't want to run in brandishing a firearm. Something she'd learned about firearms, be they pistols or super soakers, there was always someone with a larger gun than yours. Maggie never had a chance to do anything because the next moment the door to the study was opened and she was dragged back inside.

That was the last thing she remembered before waking up with her hands bound with duct tape. She was being housed in a barn... right next to some sort of an explosive device. And if it was one thing she was able to surmise from the moment she came to, it was that these men, her captors, were not very bright. They had neglected to remove the gun from her person. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if they'd noticed it in the first place.

In truth, it wasn't the men she was worried about... it was the explosive.

She'd been here for a few hours now. Much of the time she'd been quiet, either pretending to be asleep, or staring into space blankly. She'd heard everything that they'd said, and knew that she needed to get out of here.

The two men Richard and Glen were keepign their eyes on the clock. They had been all day, and they kept saying that it was almost time... Time for what, however...well she could only speculate that it had something to do with the bomb.

An hour or so ago they'd sent out a fax to someone...or so Glen had randomly said to her, even though she was 'sleeping.'

There were only two men stationed here. Even so, as time continued onward and they got more eager and anxious, she got more nervous.

Until recently she'd been working on her restaints, and only just now had she finally succeeded in getting the tape to break. Her wrists were read and sore, but not only wouldn't she complain, she couldn't complain. The men had neglected to restrain her feet, and now all that was left to do was to wait for the perfect moment until...

'Now!'

She heard the tires to Richard's truck pull up outside the barn and Glen went to go see him, she took this time to get up and run out the other entrance. There was a slight delay between her exit and the men realizing she was gone... and then the chase was on.

Looking behind her for a moment, Maggie saw the looks in their faces and wondered if this hadnt't been a mistake. They were faster than she was and they looked like they now wanted to kill her. She only had a moment in which to remove the gun from her pocket before she was tackled from behind and found herself in a choker hold. She couldn't breathe and did the one thing she could think of. Somehow the gun went off, hitting her captor, but summoning the other man as well.

Maggie ran again, but she was trying to catch her breath and found herself in a struggling match over the firearm. She lost it to him and the tables were turned, until she pulled one of her old jazz dance moves, one which wound up hitting him in a very sensative area. He dropped the gun, which she picked up, just as he lunged at her, his own gun drawn and pointed at her..

She did the only thing she could. She defended herself.

The vehicle pulled up and Chloe jumped out. She could see a struggle just ahead. And then there was a gunshot. Her breath caught in her throat as she ran as fast as she could towards the scene, Jack following behind her.

Someone was still standing. Someone with shoulder length red hair, holding a gun.

"Maggie!"

The firearm was still in the teenager's hand as Chloe's arms wrapped around her.

"Mags are you-"

"Uh...yeah...S-sorta..." She was kind of shaken and Chloe knew why. The scene told the story.

"Maggie, I am so sorry. They took you to get to me. You aren't hurt are you?" she asked looking the girl over. She didn't wait for an answer before hugging her again and surveying the situation.

If they'd gone to these lengths to get to her...

Chloe turned to Maggie and looked her straight in the eyes. "Maggie, I want you to tell me what happened."

"What? What do you mean? T-there's a bomb in there... and I-I shot-"

"No!" Chloe said sharply, her tone no nonsense. "You didn't. I did," she said putting her hand on her 'niece's' shoulder. "Say it, Mags."

"Y-you shot them."

"That's right. You were taken, but I shot them." she said louder. "Did you hear that Jack?" she called over to him. She didn't wait for a response before pointing Maggie over to him and telling her to go to him.

It was in times like these that Chloe knew that her life could never be one that she would never fully have control of. Words Jack had spoken to her rolled through her mind like a song on repeat. She'd always relied on him. She'd put her life in his hands on more occasions than she could count. She trusted him with her life... she would trust him with her heart, but she couldn't.

"You can't have a normal life in this job," she said quietly, looking down at the body lying in the sand. She'd taken Ross' gun from Maggie. She now aimed and shot the body twice, successfully planting gun shot residue on herself.

She shook her head, her head bent for a moment before repeating her comment a bit louder, so that Jack would hear it.

"You can't have a normal life and do this job, Jack."

Jack had put Maggie into the SUV and then walked back to Chloe and was now standing a short distance behind her. He looked at her, waiting for her to continue, wondering where she was going with this.

"It's impossible," she continued. She bit her lip, pausing and wrestling with what she was about to say. She knew it wouldn't be long before local authorities arrived and she needed to tell him and get him away before then...away from there...away from her.

"Jack, I know what you said...and..." she sighed, speaking more softly. "I love you Jack. There, I said it, you know now, but... But knowing has to be enough. It can't be anymore than that... It can't... I just can't."

She wouldn't look at him. She felt awful and it hurt to say the words. She tried to get herself to return strictly to business.

"They'll be here soon," she could in the distance see what she thought were flashing lights. "There isn't much time. Get Maggie out of here and back to CTU." her voice was shaking slightly. "When you get there, tell Bill that I'm the one who did it. It's better that I take the fall than she does." she paused. "They're coming. You have to go! Get her out of here!" she said this more urgently. When Jack didn't move she turned around to face him. "What are you waiting for?! Go!" she practically screamed, pointing to the SUV.

She turned back around, watching the lights get nearer as she heard the engine of the SUV come to life. She listened as the vehicle turned around and exited the way they'd driven in. It was only when they were gone that she hung her head.

She wiped away several tears that had just then decided to fall.

"I'm sorry..." It came out as a whisper, but there was only the wind there to hear it.


	16. Chapter 16

Extrapolation  
Chapter 16

"Is this what I think it is?" She looked at the box sitting on the table in front of her.

He didn't say anything, just smiled. It was a knowing smile, the smile of a person trying to act nonchalant but was having trouble holding it back.

"Maybe..." he said innocently.

Chloe shot Mason a skeptical look. Daryll stood in the doorway watching the scene. "Oh really, the two of you-"

"Shut up Haskel," Mason shot off, turning back to his girlfriend. "Just open it."

Chloe looked from her partner to Mason and shook her head. The two were friends but were forever acting as if they were at odds. She found it amusing and annoying at the same time.

"Ross is right, the two of you will never change," she muttered.

"Stop paying attention to us and open it!" Mason pushed the box into her hand. Chloe rolled her eyes as she gave in to his insistence and opened it.

"Is this a..."

"Yup." Mason smiled and took it from its setting and pushed it onto her right hand with the heart facing her.

She beamed and threw her arms around him.

On her finger sat a small silver claddagh ring.

Chloe walked onto the floor of CTU. She'd been in police custody for the better part of six hours before Bill had secured her release. She hadn't been sure he'd be able to do it. After all the pieces were all messed up and didn't fit together

Jack was waiting and watching in a secluded area of the floor, behind some tech control panels. Her words had cut him to the quick, and he'd been unable to respond at the time, but he knew now. He knew.

She walked passed where he was waiting and he grabbed her arm, dragging her back with him.

She was startled as she found herself facing him like this. He held one of her arms and she was standing with her back to the wall so he was blocking her exit.  
"It's good to see you," was all that he said.

She kept her business-like demeanor about her. "Well, since you initiated this meeting, I guess you would be seeing me," she said flatly.

He didn't like this. Normally he knew her sarcasm and her sharp wit, under normal circumstances he'd know that she was just being herself...her normal just-back-from-a-mission-low-blood-sugar-grouchy-self... But this...

He stared down at her for a moment, trying to connect with her the way they always did. They didn't normally have to say anything. There was just a connection. It was the bond they'd forged through on-the-clock and off the clock friendship, the trust they'd shared for so long. But she was radiating cold now. Her guards were up. Ones that she was intentionally reinforcing against the outside world.

He hated seeing her like this. She'd done this out in Arizona when they'd visited with her parents after Mason's death. She'd done this every time...

He brought his hand and put it atop her shoulder. "Chloe, please. Stop it..."

"Stop what?" She snapped at him this time. But Jack knew.

"You have to let me in, Chloe. Don't block me out like this," his eyes softened as he looked at her.

"I'm not doing anything."

"Stop it Chloe. You can't do this. It won't work," he said. "I know you too well to be frightened off or pushed away by this."

She looked away from him for a moment, saying nothing, still seemingly cross.

"Chloe, please." His words came out as a whisper as he brought her chin up so he could look into her eyes. "Don't."

She couldn't stand it... The look in his eyes. It was killing her inside. What she'd told him earlier. She wanted nothing more than to be able to take it all back, but it couldn't be done. The job made it impossible...

She tried to pull away from him and leave, to get back onto the floor, but he put his hands on her arms gently, trying to get her to stay.

"Let go, Jack."

"No." He looked down at her, hoping that maybe she'd stop this.

"I have to get back to work."

"No, you have to listen."

"To what?" she snapped. "What is there possibly to talk about?" she asked sharply. If this conversation went in this direction, she was certain she'd wind up in tears.

"Chloe, please, just stop and listen. Stop running..." he said gently.  
"I already told you everything, Jack. There's nothing more to say."

"Yes there is," he insisted. He again tilted her chin up so she was looking at him. "I'm not accepting that. It can work."

She was sure that her heart was about to break...break more, at what he was saying. She wasn't cold or heartless but she needed to keep them all safe. She was an omen. A jinx. Bad things followed her.

"Jack, please. You're kidding yourself," she said, holding back as best she could, the emotions that she was feeling. "It's too dangerous."

"For me? Or for you?" he asked gently. "You don't have to protect me, Chloe. This is my decision to make. And I have." He leaned in, brushing his lips against hers, it was gentle but lingered a bit as he felt her kiss him back.

The kiss broke eventually and Chloe had the look of a doe in the headlights. "Jack, you're making this ha-"

"No you are, Chloe. I'm not letting you get away. I love you, and I know you love me. One way or another I will make this work."

These words, if possibly frightened the petite agent more than anything. The what if scenarios flooding her head. She tensed up as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for a hug, this didn't go unnoticed.

"Chlo', please..."

"It's not as easy as you think, Jack..."

"It is if you let it be."

"And what if something happens?" she asked sharply, feeling the tears welling up in her eyes.

Jack looked down at her with a soft expression and kissed her softly before whispering, "As the poet says, 'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all...'" He looked at her, bringing his thumb to brush her cheek. "I've never let you down before, and I'm telling you, I'm not going anywhere. Nothing that happens, nothing that anyone, terrorist or otherwise, could throw at us, nothing is going to make me run off or leave. Nothing."

Chloe was terrified of just this. She'd never been good at this sort of thing. She had been briefly married to Morris O'Brian. She'd slept with Spenser the traitor, she'd gone out with Mason, Lyle, and there was that damn CIA agent...or was he from the Department of Defense... the DoD. His name was Jeremy and he had been one of Heller's personal assistants. It lasted 3 weeks. Chloe knew at the back of her mind that she was trying to distract herself...That was all that this was. She was trying to concentrate on anything else... she didn't want to deal with this. What they had was safe. What if things went bad!?

Jack saw what she was doing. She was going off into her mind again. And he knew he couldn't let that happen. He took the opportunity to kiss her one last time, taking advantage the moment of distraction. And he was right. Instead of fighting it, she kissed him back, not realizing that she was trying to keep this very thing from happening until they broke for air.

He smiled at her, brushing some stray hair behind her ear, saying simply, "It will work."

"No, Jack. It won't." she said breaking away from him and looking at the floor.

She tried to push away from him completely, but only succeeded in causing a little bit of distance between them. She closed her eyes tightly as she felt him move his hands to her forearm.

He didn't understand. He didn't know how to get her attention, he tried tightening his grip gently but she didn't respond. "Chloe-"

"It won't work!" she said softly.

"Why?"

His voice was demanding. Something she hadn't heard from him in some time.

She couldn't even look at him as she brought her hand up to her neckline, pulling on and breaking the chain that sat there. She shook slightly as she threw it at him.

"That's why!" she said this quietly through gritted teeth.

Jack looked down at the item and suddenly what he couldn't even comprehend moments before seemed to make a bit more sense.

"Who-?"

"Mason," she said trying to hold her emotions back.

"...Chloe." he dropped his hands from her arms and wrapped them around her loosely, giving her the option of pulling away. She didn't.

She bit her lip, refusing to let herself cry again. She'd done that too much the past several days. It wasn't appropriate now, she kept telling herself this...trying to keep to it.

Jack held her closer and tried to somehow provide some sort of comfort, several years to late.

"You have to stop this, Chloe," he whispered to her. "You can't keep living in the past like this. You have to let go," he hoped that she'd understand. "I've seen it...I'm not going to let you do this alone...even if you don't want me to."

He looked down at her, bringing his hand up to her cheek and brushed away the stray tears that had managed to escape. She didn't respond at first.

"I bring de-"

"Death, I know," he said, leaning in, "I don't care."

He kissed her one more time, softly, waiting a bit, feeling her respond. He deepened the kiss, pulling her closer and, removing one of his hands and intertwining their fingers and pressing the ring and the chain back into her palm.

When he finally pulled back she didn't know what to say. He was standing here...she didn't think she's say he was bearing his soul, but she could see it in his eyes. She loved him. She really did... But as much as she wanted to keep him safe, he wasn't going to let her.

She looked around at the floor. "So I guess this means that I'm going to need to keep you from dying then, huh?" she murmured.

He brought his hand to her chin, looking into her eyes, a small smile playing on his face. "Hey, isn't that my job?" he asked, brushing some hair behind her ear.

She forced a small smile, but it didn't last. "I need to get back to work," it wasn't said in order to brush him off, in fact she had her hand in his at that moment.

"Yeah, We both do... before they send a search party."

Without another word, the two walked out from the panel, putting back on her normal 'work face' Chloe walked passed Field Ops to where she Bill standing. He was coming back onto the floor and into the briefing room.

"Chloe, good to see you."

Her lips quirked momentarily. "Glad to be back. Thanks for getting me out of there."

"My pleasure. But I want a run down of what happened."

"Figured that you would."

Chloe followed Bill into the conference room, looking over her shoulder and meeting Jack's eyes briefly, before closing the door behind her, never noticing that the claddagh ring had been left behind, lying on its side on the floor behind the panel.


	17. Chapter 17

Extrapolation  
Chapter 17

This was impossible. Every time they thought they were getting close, there would be another wall to break through.

"This isn't supposed to be this hard," Edgar said frustrated. "Every time..."

Milo was not having any more luck on computer. "It happen-"

"Damn there it goes again!" Edgar exclaimed.

The satellite was moving. Again!

"Someone get Buchanan and the agents down here! And get Division on the phone!" Jack yelled as he tried to track the coordinates. "Forget it I'll do it myself." he said hitting a button on the phone.

"This is Jack Bauer, LA CTU. I need to speak to Trisha D'Bete immediately."

"I'm sorry but she's in a meetin-"

"I don't care that she's in a meeting. Get her on the phone NOW!" he practically roared.

Buchanan came rushing down the stairs from the second level with Chloe and Marcus rushing behind him. Chase was at Chloe's sleeping after pulling an all-nighter.

"What do we have?"

"Satellite's moving again."

"Jack do we have the coordinates yet?"

"No it hasn't stopped moving yet, Milo. What? No I wasn't talking to you! Just get her on the phone!"

"Carrie, get a feed from the satellite up on the monitor!" Chloe said taking a station herself. She didn't know what she could do, but she had enough know how to help with the trace.

The intern pressed some keys. "It's up."

"NO! I need to talk to- what? Trish? Finally! It's doing it again! What? No it's not... It's moving!"

"Any luck with that Milo?"

"Chloe I'm going as fast as I can."

"Tracking the grid now, but its harder to do when its still moving, Trisha."

"What's the status on that satellite?" Bill asked glancing up.

"Still mov- No it stopped!"

All eyes shot up.

"I've got it!" Jack said, the phone still sitting between his ear and his shoulder. "Maypoint!"

"Where?"

"Yeah Trisha, m-a-y-p-o-i-n-t. You need to rescind that order now! It's here!"

"Its what?" that caught everyone's attention, especially Bill, whose voice was heard.

"It's in our jurisdiction. We need you to-... Well then-"

All eyes were still on the screen.

"We'll never get there in time," Milo murmured.

The pattern had been the satellite would reposition there would be a short gap and then there would be the explosion. But this time...

"Where is it?"

Nothing happened.

"I almost have it! One more... Milo help me here!" Edgar called. He was tracking the satellite thief. Milo jumped back onto the system and synced up with Edgar's system. "That's it! We got it!"

"Nothing's happening..." Chloe said. She was watching over Jack's shoulder.

"Maypoint," Milo said, watching his screen. "The guy's in Maypoint..."

"Nothing's happening..."

"Did you hear that Trish? You did? Well-"

"Let me talk to her, Jack," Bill pulled the handset from Jack.

"Maypoint? Where the hell is Maypoint?"

"Nothing is happening!"

"Yeah, Chloe, nothing's happening, we get it!" Marcus said, wondering now who was being the annoying one.

"Why is nothing happening?!" she exclaimed.

"Well I don't know Chloe! Are you rooting for an explosion?" Marcus snapped, standing up straight.

"No you rookie! It's breaking the pattern!" she said sharply.

"Finally! Thank you Ms. D'Bete." The phone was hung up. "The hands off order's been rescinded!"

"Nothing's happening, Bill," Milo this time.

"Well what the hell are you all standing around here for?" Bill demanded. For a moment it was as if he'd wondered if they all lost their minds.

Chloe shook her head. "This is different. It breaks the pattern. Why? What's different about this town?" she asked rhetorically.

"Mr. Buchanan, we need to keep this from the press. If it gets out-"

"I know Edgar. This isn't leaving CTU."

"Where the hell is Maypoint? I've never heard of it?"

"It's a small town, population fifteen," Edgar said, his eyes on the screen.

"Where'd you get that?"

"I looked it up," he said looking at Marcus like he was a complete idiot.

"We've got another problem," Milo said.

"Just what we need," Chloe said with a roll of her eyes. She was backing up ever so slowly, getting ready to leave.

Jack got up and walked over to Milo's station, looking over his shoulder.

"If they got into the satellite matrix they may have-"

"Gotten into the main system," Jack finished. "Can we figure it out from here?"

"Not this time... I've tried."

"Jack, you go with Chloe and Marcus." Bill saw that Chloe was about to argue and he shot her a look. "For whatever reason this town has broken the pattern, and I want to know why."

"I need Jack here running comms!" Chloe exclaimed.

"I can run 'em," Edgar said, hesitantly speaking up.

"I know you can, Edgar," she said turning to him, "but I-"

"Chloe, that was an order."

Chloe hated it when Bill pulled rank on her. She had a bad feeling about this. She nodded to Bill. 

"We'll figure it out, but I want backup ready to roll out at the first call," she said flatly.

"Always."

"C'mon." She walked off towards the tactical station. "I need a full tactical kit for my vehicle and I need it there asap."

She waited for the other two to catch up. "We'll deal with vests on the way, I don't want to waste anymore time."

"So, do you think that they got the idea?"

"Probably trying to figure out why," he said with a smirk.

"Well that probably means they're coming," Jim Oscar muttered, leaning against the door frame.

"Well, Jim, we'll just have to be ready then. And you know me boys," Vincent Turner said looking around to his men. "I've been waiting for this."

"Chloe, Jack, Marcus? You guys there?" It was Edgar.

"Marcus can't come to the phone right now, he's driving," Marcus said, with a smirk on his face.

"Cut it out Collier," Chloe snapped. "We read you Edgar, I assume this means comms are up and running."

"Uh-huh."

"Good."

"Edgar, it's Jack, did they finish with the analysis yet?"

"You'll be lookin' for some kinda explosive charge, under the larger buildings. Topeka reported C4, but the last site, where you found Margaret, Chloe said there was a bomb, so yeah...I could be anything."

This was not what Chloe wanted to hear.

"That's not helpful Edgar," Marcus muttered under his breath.

Jack shot a look at the man in the driver's seat. Marcus was not helping things, the field agent, clearly frustrated, didn't have any sort of background in the area he and Edgar dealt with.

"Edgar, since the order was lifted we have clearance for scanning... Have you done a Cb-4a on the area? Checking for the usual components?"

"That was the first thing I did. I checked all there was, Jack. What do you want from me?"

Chloe sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose as the SUV drew closer to the town of Maypoint, California. She was suddenly thankful for all of her training, silently hoping that nothing went wrong.

"Do you have the town in-"

"I've got it cued up on satellite; when you get there, I'll get you into its sights. We'll have you covered."

"Thanks Edgar. We'll be in touch," Chloe now turned to Marcus. "So we're going to be flying blind here you two."

She could feel a headache coming on. Why was it when she needed information the most it was never available.

"It's not that bad, Chloe," Marcus tried as they turned off the highway.

"What do mean 'it's not that bad' Collier? We're going into a possibly deadly situation! How could it be 'not that bad?'"

"Hey, just trying to keep things light..." he murmured.

"Well don't!" Chloe snapped. "That won't do us any good! I-" She felt a hand on her shoulder, cutting her off. Jack leaned forward from his place in the back seat.

"It'll be okay, he's just trying to help." Jack tried to sooth her already frayed nerves, something that did not go unnoticed by Marcus. The fact that Jack seemed to have a way of getting to her... 'It's about time,' he couldn't help but think with a smirk.

Chloe took a breath, trying to take Jack's words to heart. "Well if he's trying to help he shouldn't."

"Hello? Can we please not talk about me like I'm not here? Thank you," Marcus frowned. They passed a sign. "Well that didn't take as long as I thought it would. Amazing how banter seems to pass the time..."

_**Maypoint, California  
**__**Pop. 15**_

The sounds of _Face Down_ by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus filled the garage as Miles Harner attempted to fix the fan belt on his old '67 Mustang. He'd finally taken the advice of Jim Oscar and had give up trying to fix the van.

"Harner! Turn down that racket!!"

"It's not a racket," Miles yelled behind him, bringing his upper body upright and out of the engine. "It's music!"

"Well your music's too-" Jake Elison's words were lost in the hum of a van passing down the street. This was unusual.

"Looks like we have visitors," the younger Harner sibling mused. "Hey Ali," he called to his sister.

Alice Harner came out of the house with a frown.

The Harner siblings lived in a one level house they'd inherited when their parents had passed on. There were very trying days between the two and others when they got on very well, today seemed to be somewhere in between.

"What is it, Miles?" she asked before adding, "I can barely heard you over that noise."

"Why does everyone think this is noise? It's music, I swear..." He rolled his eyes. "But that's not the point." He pointed at the black SUV that was driving slowly through the town. "Check it out, sis. Tourists." He said this with a smirk. They didn't get visitors very often.

"Whatever, what is it with you and announcing whenever a random car drives through? It's tiresome," she said to the point. "Come on, I need help in the kitchen...and you look like you could use a dunk in the pond before I even let you back in the house," she commented more to herself with a sigh. "C'mon."

With a shrug, Miles followed his sister into the house, being sure to wipe his shoes on the mat before going in, leaving the music on in the garage.

The three special agents were cautious as they exited the vehicle. They'd be treading a thin line. There were fifteen people in town who most likely had no idea what was going in? At least that was the working theory... I mean who would willingly blow up their own home town? Would it not be easier to just simply leave if you didn't like it?

The first thing they heard was music. It was coming from the garage of the building they'd parked in front of.

"Oh, I love this song," Marcus said with a grin.

"Dammit, Marcus. Focus!"

"I uh...I mean under other circumstances..."

"What's the plan, Chloe?" Jack asked looking back at the the petite agent.

"Well, I think the subtle approach is out of the question," she said, seeing one of the neighbors peering out their front windows.

"So?"

"So," she sighed, "we start looking."

"Wow, they really _are_ tourists," Alice said looking out her front window.

"What do you mean?" Jenna Malcolm and her family, her husband Allen and their two kids Hannah and Danny were over for dinner.

"Miles saw a van pulling through town," the older of the Harners said with a casual shrug. "And from the looks of it they're having a look around."

"And just what is there to see in this town?" Allen asked with a loud laugh.

"Oh come on Allen," Jenna said hitting her husband in the shoulder. "We have some...things to look at."

"Oh like what?"

Jenna thought for several moments and found herself able to say nothing. At this Allen's laughter only grew louder.

"Daddy," Hannah pulled on her father's shoulder. "Daddy what's so funny?"

More laughter.

"Alright, it looks like I missed something," Miles was back now. "So Ali, this clean enough for you?"

"Did you get the grime out from under your nails?"

"Yes," he said this rather childishly.

"Well then it'll do."

She started to bring several dishes from the kitchen to the dining room table when they heard the door open again. It was Alex Bensen, one of the men who'd come with Jim Oscar when their van had broken down.

"Alex, there you are. Where's everyone else? You're all going to miss supper."

Alex was very quiet at that moment. Alex was often compared to a chatterbox. He never shut up, so when he was this quiet... Miles wondered what was going on. And then Alex was holding something.

"I'm afraid that no one is going to be leaving here for a while. I won't hesitate to shoot any of you if you try."

"Well Vince?"

Vincent Turner smirked a he dialed a phone number on his cell. "Are they secured?... Good."

He repeated this three more times, giving instructions to all to inform their captives of their impending doom.

"Tell them that if they cooperate they might have a chance of survival. That should keep them from causing problems. Then we'll make our move."

"Well?" Jim repeated.

"We're ready."

It didn't make sense... Why weren't any of the townspeople coming out and asking them what they were doing? Thus far Chloe, Jack and Marcus had been searching the perimeter of various buildings for explosive devices.

"This isn't getting us anywhere, and why won't they turn that stupid song off?" Chloe grumbled. Something wasn't sitting right with her.

"The odds are that this device is inside somewhere..." Marcus had had training on defusing explosive devices but that didn't make him any better at finding them.

"Hello?" Edgar.

"What do you have for us Edgar?"

"You're up on satellite and they finished the analysis of the components from Topeka. It wasn't on a timer like we first thought. It was activated by remote control. Remember you three, we're not sure how long we have before they go off ther-"

"We know Edgar," Jack said, trying to keep a level head.

"Okay sor- Watch out, there's a group of-"

Bullets rained from behind the three agents. They drew there guns. They tried to find cover on the empty street, finally crouching behind their SUV. They returned fire, Jack took one with a single shot. He was silently thankful for his firearm proficiency and his kevlar vest.

"We've got four hostiles! Only one is down. We need backup now!" Chloe practically yelled as she and the others looked for a more advantageous spot. More bullet rained though the street. When the gunshots slowed the agents injured or killed three of them before Marcus' arm was grazed.

As he pulled the trigger one last time, the bullet found its way into the last of them, dropping the terrorist to the ground.

"Edgar?" Chloe wasn't sure if the connection had gotten severed in their short scuffle. "Edgar do you-"

"I'm here."

"We've got the four of them down."

"Four?" There was uncertainty in Edgar's voice which Chloe didn't like. "There were five of them."

"Wha-"

Before they could think let alone react Jack had an arm around his neck and a gun pressed to his head. Jack couldn't see who had him, but from his captor's size it was clearly a man.

"If you cooperate you might just get out of this alive," he heard him say into his ear. Jack didn't believe this, not for a for a second. He was pulled backwards away from his team. It happened so quickly that when Chloe turned around he had been dragged several yards away.

What had been a shootout had become a hostage situation...

"Jack..." She felt the words leave her lips before she could stop them. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized what was happening. She knew better than to move towards the man who held him, but she wanted to. She stared for a moment shaking her head. "No..."

Jack wasn't trained for this. He wasn't a field agent!

"Well, now aren't the tables turned?" That voice... Chloe knew that voice! The voice brought Chloe back to her senses.

"Turner."

The man only smiled, his face partially visible over Jack's shoulder. He didn't say anything. His smile was haunting.

She could feel her hand shaking slightly, her emotions were rising. She looked at Jack. He seemed so... so... there weren't even words to describe it. She was more scared than she'd ever been in the field. She steadied herself, pushing her emotions to the side but all she could do was see Jack's face.

"Let him go," she ordered.

No reply.

"We know all about it, Vincent. The bombs, the detonations, the five towns. You've been playing out Barringer again. But it's over," she said calmly.

Vincent Turner's smile never faltered. "Odd, somehow I got the feeling that I was holding the winning hand."

Turner was trying to get her to play his game. It was a game she knew better than to get caught in.

"What, no reply O'Brian?" Turner sneered. He tightened his grip on Jack and started to play around with the gun in his other hand. "You know, I could be really careless right now-"

"No!" She jerked forward, forgetting herself, and would have made things worse had it not been for Marcus quickly calling her name.

Her eyes grew steely as she addressed the terrorist. "Your fight is with me, Turner. Let Bauer go."

The man didn't listen.

"If you take him down, you will fail. You lose, Turner. Any way you look at it you've failed."

As she spoke, Turner started to back up, moving away from the two agents, bringing his captive with him. Jack's and Chloe's eyes met and he knew what she was hinting at.

"Don't move!" Chloe yelled. It was a warning. Turner refused to comply and as he continued his retreat he forced her hand. "I can't let you take him, Turner." She took her eye from the terrorist only momentarily as she spoke words she knew she would regret for the rest of her life. "I'm sorry Jack..."

Somewhere inside, Jack had known this was coming. He knew what she had to do... there was no other option. He was a national security risk. Turner was a bigger one, and he was first priority. Jack closed his eyes and took a breath as he slowly nodded. He understood. She had to do her job...

Without even a moment's hesitation, Chloe brought her gun in front of her. She aimed, her glare never easing.

In a moment Jack was on the ground and Turner was dashing away. Chloe instantly ran after the terrorist, never looking back.

Turner was faster than she but she soon had him in shooting range. He was trapped with her on one side and a wall on the other.

"This is the end, Vince," she said. "It's just you and me now. And you're not getting out of here."

"Aren't federal agents supposed to bring their suspects in alive?" Even in instances such as these, Turner always seemed to have some snappy comeback. This time it would do him no good. He knew it, she knew it...

She glared at him. "Sometimes... But in your case, I'm making an exception."

She watched the body fall, and she fell to her knees dropping her gun. She couldn't breathe.

Tears stung her eyes as she tried to hold them back, but the dam had broken and she couldn't stop the water from rushing.

She pulled her cellular phone from her pocket, the image flashing in her head. She pressed a button and didn't even wait for the person to identify themselves.

"Where is that backup!"

"They're arriving now, Chloe. What's going on?

"Th-they're here? Thank god...that's all Bill, I'm done..." she whispered.

"Chloe?" no answer. "Chloe!!"

She ended the call and turned off the phone.

Jack wasn't in pain anymore. The bullet had been taken out and he'd have some healing to do, but he'd be able to walk normally. The doctor said that there wouldn't even be a limp. It had basically been a flesh wound.

He'd been awake for a while now. Bill said debriefing could wait. Curtis had been by to see him, Marcus, Edgar, even the interns, those who weren't afraid that he'd bite their heads off when they were on the floor during a crisis, came to see him. But his favorite guest so far, had been his daughter.

Kim had caught the first flight she could from DC... Karen had called in a favor or two to get the young woman there. The first flight just so happened to be on a government plane. She had come on her own. A smile came to Jack's face as he remembered her run-in with Chase as she was leaving his room in Medical.

It was almost lunch time and he was expecting Jamie, an intern who'd basically been assigned to keep an eye on him, much to his dismay, to bring his lunch in. He was expecting her, so when the door opened he didn't even look up from the computer screen... he's insisted that just because he was in bed didn't mean he couldn't work.

"Come in Jamie it's open," he called before adding with a laugh, "not like I'm getting up to lock it."

When he didn't hear any footsteps he turned towards the door and froze momentarily, a smile slowly coming to his lips.

She stood there, uneasily. She alternated between looking at the floor and glancing at him. He took a moment, just looking at her before he finally spoke.

"Chloe." She looked up, her eyes meeting his, looking like a doe in the headlights. He shook his head at her, his eyes softening. He clicked some buttons and put the laptop aside quickly, still looking at her.

"I um...How are you feeling?" she asked him. She seemed hesitant, as if she was afraid of what he'd say.

"I'm fine, Chloe. Doctor says I'll be just fine." He stared at her until she finally started walking toward him, until she was close enough and he took her in his arms. "Gods, its good to see you." he said his eyes closed.

He'd been worried, she hadn't been to see him and other than saying that Turner was dead, no one would tell him what had happened to her.

He felt her hands wrap around him. Her eyes were closed tightly and she was striving to hold back tears. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to but I-"

Jack was momentarily stunned. He pulled back from the embrace, looking down at her. "What are you talking about?" he asked. How could she be...

"Did the bullet effect your brain, Bauer?" she asked sharply, not meeting his eyes. "I shot you!"

His eyes softened as he shook his head and brought his fingers to her chin. "You saved me," he whispered.

"No, I-"

"Turner would have killed me, Chloe. He would have killed me," he said resting his forehead against her own. "Do you understand me? Chloe, you shot me to save me. It was the right decision and any guilt you feel about it, anything you think that I'll do, don't," he wrapped an arm around her again and kissed her cheek, slowly moving to her neck, whispering, "And if you don't believe me, I'll do whatever I have to to prove it to you."

Jack opened his eyes-

"Agent Bauer...er...Jack?" Jamie tried, he'd told her to call him by his first name but she kept forgetting... "Um...it's time for lunch!"

"Wha-?"

"Oh I didn't know you were... Oh sorry." Jamie had entered the room with a tray of food.

Jack looked around. "What time is it?"

"One-thirty. Sorry it's so late today, there was a problem so it took a bit."

She left the tray on the side table and quickly left. She was replaced by a familiar dark-headed man who entered, a fork in one hand and a Caesar salad in the other.

"Well she was in a hurry," he'd nearly been run over by the fleeing intern.

"Tony?" Jack, still not entirely focused, was hit by something. "You seem to show up when someone is injured, can't you just visit like a normal person?"

Tony shrugged, sitting down in the chair next to him. "That would be too easy." He tried to sound nonchalant about it, but it was difficult.

Jack looked around, confused. "Tony, what's going on? Where's Chloe? She-"

"She's gone Jack," Tony didn't want to tell him, but he knew better than to beat around the bush when Jack Bauer was involved.

Jack didn't understand what Tony was saying. "Tony, that's impossible. She was just here, just before you came back in."

Tony sighed and shook his head. "No, Jack. She wasn't. I only stepped into the hall and was outside the door the whole time. I've been here all night. Everyone's come to see you...but she hasn't," he said sadly. "We can't find her, Jack..." he said quietly. "We've tried everything."

Every day it seemed to get worse. He was out of all medical scrutiny now and since the moment Tony had told him, he'd been in a state of shock.

What had happened? How could she have just... How? Damn it, she was Chloe O'Brian. But still... She might be-

No. He refused to let himself think that! She couldn't be. Just couldn't be... But it was eating at him, the not knowing.

He didn't know what else to do. Technology had failed him. His searches had turned up nothing. He hadn't given up, and he wouldn't but for now...

He felt it was time. He'd come here to pay his respects, maybe try to find some guidance. But as he approached the gravesite he thought he saw someone, standing there in the distance, but he wasn't wearing his glasses. He couldn't make out who it was.

Jack looked away for a moment, taking his glasses from his pocket, but when he looked back, the person was gone.

Jack sighed and walked to the plot, Ross'. He didn't really know why he was here, but he needed to do this. He'd wanted to say something, but now he couldn't get the words out...

Sitting on the grave were some fresh lilies. In the air...he could swear that he smelled jasmine, but convinced himself that it was all in his head.

Lost, confused and frustrated, Jack Bauer sat down on a bench with his head in his hands, staring at the grave in front of him.


End file.
